


Sugar, Spice, And Everything Nice

by Kairyn



Series: Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: All kinds of crazy, Anime/Manga Fusion, Canon Rewrite, F/M, Fem!Sanji, Female Sanji - Freeform, Gen, Gender or Sex Swap, M/M, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Other, POV First Person, Slow Build, Slow Romance, but with affection, femsan, femsan/zoro, gushing over swordsmen, somewhat Nami bashing, sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2009-11-17
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-04-30 22:14:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 90,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5181629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kairyn/pseuds/Kairyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Also to be found on Fanfiction.net this is my very long re-write of One Piece with our oh so loveable womanizing cook as a flirtatious female. There will be a lot of rehashing of canon from Sonya's (or femSan! POV) but also some original arcs delving into my own headcanon for this version of the character. </p><p>Started in 2009 and currently over a hundred chapters and still going! Because I have no sense of proportion apparently! Also it'll take me some time to update this story to the size that the original post on FF.net is so if impatient head on over there to read ahead, it's under the same name. Let's have some fun!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sonya

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this incredibly ambitious story began in 2009 before Sanji's last name and family were revealed. This is important to note because that means that I included an arc and other details that directly conflicts with this new information. I have been retconning it along with editing to merge with the canon as best I can and I believe I have found a way to combine the two different histories into one (albeit slightly more complicated) past. The canon I'm trying to tweak as little as possible but it too has some differences to what Oda wrote. It will take some time before we reach this point but I wanted to be sure that those going into this story are aware that I am doing my best to stick with canon as I go despite the fact that the series is ongoing. Also, I am endeavoring to keep the genderswaps as minimal as possible (with the exception of the one most obvious). I began this story more as a challenge to see if it could be done and I've come to greatly enjoy finding the little differences that arise from the Strawhat cook being female while keeping the main story as unchanged as possible.

I couldn’t help but smirk a bit at my own reflection. Okay, I’m vain. I’ll be the first to admit it. But hey, a girl’s gotta look good doesn’t she? I pulled out my tube of favorite bright red lipstick and reapplied it quickly before putting it away again. Being the assistant chef and often the main hostess of the Baratie I had to look the part. I flicked a strand of bright blonde hair to the side where it all of my bangs rested to block out my one blue eye. The other eye was done up with mascara and slightly darker than natural eye shadow; no need to over do it, it was still daytime after all. At night I’d go for the heavier stuff.

“Sonya, quit primping and get to work!” I heard Zeff shouting.

I rolled my eyes at him. Honestly, I love the man like a father but he should know by now I need my time to get ready. “I’m going! I’m going!” I called back before straightening the black tie that I wore around my neck. One last glance to make sure my sleeveless white button down with collar was wrinkle free and I started towards the front of the ship.

Suddenly, there was a huge crash and I looked around, expecting to see some huge fire leaping from the stoves like the last time I’d heard an explosion like that. Luckily, there were no huge fires to put out and I looked up towards the top of the ship where all the cabins were located. “What the hell?”

There was a loud commotion and I couldn’t help but sigh. Someone was seriously asking for my high-heeled boot up their sorry ass. This was a restaurant, not a brawling house!

I gave a few orders that I had gather from the customers to the cooks that I knew could handle them and brushed a few invisible pieces of dirt from my knee length skirt (I was wearing biker shorts underneath; I didn’t trust the sailors we always got in here). “Here ya go, Sonya,” a chef said as he slid the plate across the serving area before instantly going back to work. I barely even caught a glimpse of him.

“Thank you, love,” I replied happily as I picked up the food and took it to the waiting customer. A man with a rather nice set of biceps and a pair of purple sunglasses that were a bit ridiculous but something I could easily look past. “Here you are, sir. Please, if you need anything, be sure to ask and I’ll be happy to get it for you,” I said as I slid the plate in front of him.

Suddenly, there was a loud call of ‘WAITRESS!’ and I looked over to see that a rather obnoxious marine was calling for me. He’d been bugging me ever since he’d shown up but he was a customer so I was trying my best to put up with him. He’d tried some stupid trick thing with wine earlier but I wasn’t about to serve a wine that didn’t go with a meal. He hadn’t been so happy about that. Mentally I sighed but got over it quickly as I plastered a smile on my face. “Sir, if you’ll remember I’m not the waitress. Is there something I can do for you?” I asked looking between the man and his date.

I was just deciding that I might as well ask the woman if she needed something when the marine slammed his hand against the table. “Hey! Why is there an insect in my soup?” he demanded and pointed to the tiny bug floating on top of his tomato basil soup. “What is this insect?” he shouted loudly.

I blinked a little. There was no way that bug had been there five minutes ago when it was brought out of the kitchen. But I wasn’t about to tell him that. “I’m sorry, sir, I honestly couldn’t say. I’m a cook, not an insect expert.”

Almost instantly the entire restaurant started laughing, some louder than others. I gave an apologetic smile; I really hadn’t meant to get people laughing. I was just trying to soothe his nerves without saying anyone was wrong. I wouldn’t do that to a customer! It wasn’t appropriate!

Suddenly, the man lashed out, slamming his fist through the table and splintering it in half. I took an instinctive step back as the plates and glasses shattered on the ground. I grit my teeth to keep my temper. Normally, I was a very pleasant person (especially if you’re a half decent looking guy) but this guy was _trying_ to piss me off. And whatd’ya know…it was working!

“Do you realize who I am?” he growled as he held up his fist that had iron knuckles on it. The silence in the restaurant was absolutely mind-boggling. I could even hear the noise in the kitchen stop as everyone took in a collective breath and held it.

I cleared my throat to keep from letting it sound angry. The guy was alright looking -even if he did have a crappy personality- so I’d give him a single forgiveness for his rudeness. “I’m sorry, sir, I’ll just take this insect off for you. Did you want to order a dessert or maybe coffee?”

“What?” the man asked not sounding particularly soothed by my efforts. “I am the guest and I am paying to eat here!” he shouted angrily. “You’re just a chef! How dare you make fun of me!!”

Since when was I making fun of him? I don’t recall doing that at all. I was trying to be polite, damn it! The man’s date leapt half out of her chair “Stop, Mr. Fullbody! Please forgive her!”

That irked me even more. I didn’t do anything and this floozy date of his was asking _him_ to forgive _me?_ I knew my eye had lost all warmth it might have had and I resisted the urge to kick something. I gave my best smile –though I knew it was strained- and tapped my toe behind me on the floor. But no, no, no I couldn’t kick him. No matter how much he deserved it. “I’m sorry, sir, but you’re disturbing the other guests. I’m going to have to ask you to either calm down or leave. I’d absolutely hate to have to kick you out of here.”

I heard the door to the kitchens burst open. “Somebody stop, Sonya!” Someone shouted. They could tell I was nearing my breaking point. Even I could only take so much.

“Don’t do it, second chef!” One of the others called to me desperately.

“Ha! Like a little bimbo like you could kick anyone out!” Fullbody said with a sneer.

The chefs behind me fell deadly silent. I shifted my weight to my back foot. I could take a lot of things. But calling me a name like that was NOT one of them. Faster than the man could react, I lashed out with my foot. The toe of my boot caught him on the temple and he fell. But I had already brought my knee up and his face slammed into it and he cried out in pain. He hit the deck hard and bleeding.

Blood was gushing from his head, dripping all the way down to his iron-knuckle wearing hand and destroying his nice suit. He groaned a bit as I put my heel on his already swelling face, pinning it between my foot and the hard deck. “Whoever messes with a chef in the middle of the sea, sir-” I couldn’t help but sneer a bit at the word “-that person has committed suicide. Remember this!”

“Food is not something you can play with!” I added in a hiss. The man might have actually made a mess in his trousers. He definitely looked terrified. Casually, I reached into the pocket of my skirt and pulled out a small silver case. I opened it and pulled out a cigarette. A quick flick of my lighter and it was lit. I put my lighter and cigarette case back in my pocket and exhaled a long stream of smoke. “You got that?” I asked letting the cigarette hang limply from my fingers; I never did like holding it my mouth all the time, it looked classless.

“ **What is this?!!”** I heard the unmistakable voice of Patty crying from the other side of the dinning room. **“A customer!?! Sonya!!! What did you do to our customer?! Isn’t that Mr. Lieutenant of the Marines?!!”** he screamed as he pointed at the man under my heel.

I turned and smiled at him. “Hello, Patty dear! Off break already?” I replied as sweetly as I could given that I was still a little –or possibly a lot- ticked.

“ **A restaurant has to welcome customers, instead of hurting them! What is the meaning of this?!”** Patty asked, practically blowing steam from his nose in anger.

I maintained my smile as best I could. Patty was like my annoying uncle that had long ago gotten over my charms. “I know, Patty dear,” I said waving slightly as if that would calm down some of his anger. It wasn’t working it didn’t look like, which meant I had to switch tactics. I put on my best pout. “It’s just…he insulted the chef by messing with his food. I was just trying to teach him a lesson in manners. Then he called me a bimbo. You know how mad that makes me,” I explained as I added a little sway to try and soothe his temper.

I finally took my foot off of the man and walked over to where Patty was standing; suddenly looking unsure of who he should be mad at. “What the hell…What kind of restaurant treats…it’s customers this way?” Fullbody asked as he propped himself up against the wall. “I will destroy this place!” he shouted suddenly. “I’ll tell the government to shut this place down!”

I turned to look at the man. He was now officially on my black list. “You want to shut us down?” I asked darkly. I took another inhale of smoke and blew it out in a huff. “I can’t let you live now.”

“What did you say?!” Fullbody squeaked.

“Stop this, assistant chef!” Some of the cooks cried from where they were crowded around the door to the kitchen. I ignored them and lunged, but they had predicted I’d do that and jumped to hold me back.

“I’m really pissed off now!!” I screamed as I tried to squirm out from their grips.

“Everyone stop her or she’ll kill that man!!” One chef yelled.

I twisted and managed to get one person’s hand off me but I was still stuck behind several bodies “I really can’t stand idiots like you!!”

“That’s enough, Sonya! Stop it!!”

I stopped and glared over the shoulders of two chefs. “Just who the hell do you think you are?” I demanded; all pretense of a nice girl chucked out the window at the sight of my temper.

Suddenly, two huge forms crashed through the ceiling and onto the floor with a rain of wood shards and a long scream. “What is it now?” one of the chefs asked exasperatedly.

I raised my eyebrow. That was a very good question. I could easily recognize the impossibly tall hat of Zeff, but who was the other guy? I tried to take the opportunity to wriggle free from my captors but they held on frustratingly tight. “Head chef!” one of my captors screamed. “Can you stop, Sonya?” he begged.

Zeff took a few uneven steps over. “Sonya! It’s you again?”

“Zeff~” I whined. “It isn’t my fault!”

Patty ignored me. “Yes, boss!” he said. “She has hurt Mr. Octopus head. Our customer!”

Zeff lashed out with his peg leg, slamming it into my stomach and making me double over. “Do you want to destroy my restaurant?!” he demanded. Luckily I was used to getting a piece of wood jabbed into my stomach and I’d recover fairly quickly, but I still hit my knees with a cough of pain.

“Isn’t that the guy who shot the cannon at us?” the person who slammed through the roof with Zeff asked curiously. “Why is he bleeding?”

Zeff quickly turned his anger on Fullbody and kicked him hard towards the door. “Get out of my restaurant now!” he ordered. Fullbody slid to a stop almost right next to the door but I was more concerned with bruise that I was sure I’d be sporting in the morning.

“Listen! Customers are our gods!” Patty snapped as I got to my feet and took a calming drag of nicotine.

Luckily, my anger was pretty much spent so I could easily handle Patty’s ranting and raving without it even registering on my annoyance scale. “Of course, Patty!” I agreed wholeheartedly. “But even some customers have to have rules…he was being a real jerk to me!” Patty opened his mouth to protest but was instantly stopped by Zeff.

“Patty! Sonya! If you two want to fight just go back into the kitchen!” Zeff snapped.

Suddenly the door slammed open and a uniformed marine hurried in. “Lieutenant!! Lt. Fullbody! It’s an emergency!!!” he shouted. Fullbody snapped his head around instantly. “I’m very sorry, sir. But our captive has escaped from his cell!”

It was then I noticed the marine had a fair amount of blood on his face. It must have been a very violent break out. Pirates tended to do that though. “What a busy place,” the boy who crashed through with Zeff said with a sigh. I finally took a minute to closer examine the kid. He was thin and lanky with a red vest and shorts that were rolled up to his knees. A pair of simple sandals and a straw hat completed his innocent ensemble. He had wild black hair and big innocent eyes with a small scar under his left one. I tilted my head in thought. He wasn’t bad looking…if a little young for my tastes. In a few years maybe…

I noticed the marine was shouting again. “Krieg’s crewman has escaped!!” he screamed. “Even seven of us can’t touch him!!”

“That’s crazy!” Fullbody said. “How can he have any strength left?! We caught him three days ago, when he nearly died, and we have not fed him since then!”

I felt my anger spike instantly. Hadn’t eaten in three days!? That was just inhumane! Nobody was worth starving! No matter how bad a person they were! But around me people had latched onto a different point of interest. “Krieg’s pirates!? That’s the strongest pirate in the East Blue!!” the customers cried in horror.

“Forgive me!” the marine at the door cried. A second later there was a shot and the marine cried out as a bullet tore through his chest. As he collapsed to the ground, I could see a shadowy figure holding a smoking gun. People started screaming instantly –well most people.

“Here comes another customer,” Patty said dully.

“I hope he doesn’t disturb my restaurant,” Zeff muttered before casting me a long and rather disapproving glance. I just rolled my eyes. Honestly, as long as people keep polite I’m the perfect lady.

“A pirate?” the Strawhat boy asked somewhat dumbly. He had apparently not been paying attention.

Everything was utterly silent as the man walked in and almost collapsed into a seat. I tilted my head in survey. He had that dark brooding thing going for him. Thin from lack of food and bags under his eyes. He looked like he hadn’t had a shave in a while and blood and dirt covered him. His short black hair was held back by a striped headband, which matched his grey and dark blue tracksuit. It was no question that this was the pirate that Fullbody had been holding. ‘ _Clean him up a bit and he might be decent…’_ I thought to myself.

“Just go and get me something to eat,” he said gruffly. “This is a restaurant, right?”

I gave my best smile. “Only the best, sweetheart.”

Patty hurried over. “Welcome to our restaurant, sir.”

“W-what did they say?!” the other customers were aghast. What? Had they never seen good service before or something?

“I’ll say it again. So you’d better listen. I’m the customer. Get me some food, now!” the previously captured pirate ordered.

Fullbody muttered something that sounded suspiciously like a death threat. “I’m most sorry, Moron. But do you have any money?” Patty asked putting a hand to the top of his strangely shaped head.

I made a move to walk over but Zeff put a hand out in a silent signal to stay back. He knew me too well sometimes. He really did. “Do you want me to pay with a bullet?” the pirate asked putting the barrel of his gun to Patty’s forehead. “Because I don’t have any money.”

I closed my eyes as Patty slammed the pirate with both of his large hands. The customers and a few of the newer chefs gasped in awe. “Patty! You broke one of my chairs!” Zeff snapped.

“What power,” the Strawhat kid said in amazement.

“If you don’t have any money-” Patty said folding his arms over his barrel chest. “Then you’re not a customer.”

The customers cheered but I was less than happy. Especially when the pirate’s stomach gave a loud rumble a second later. “Ho! Your stomach is crying loudly,” Patty said sounding surprised for some reason. I mean, what did he expect when the pirate hadn’t eaten in at least three days?

“I just farted, idiot,” the pirate lied. “Now get me some food.”

“Get out!!” Patty shouted. “You are not a customer!!” I took a long drag from my cigarette to keep from saying something as Patty went berserk. Honestly, he was worse than me sometimes. “This is a restaurant that welcomes only customers!! A poor pirate like you, I wont even give a crumb!!” he shouted as he kicked the pirate almost out of the door.

Fullbody quickly fled out of the door, seemingly uncomfortable by our behavior, which was odd as I’d never found anything strange about it. Finally, the pirate collapsed, spitting up a bit of blood as he did. Patty gave a little curtsy with his apron, “Everyone, please continue dining!”

Everyone reluctantly did as a few chefs came and drug the pirate out of the dining room and onto the back deck of the Baratie. I hummed a bit in thought and turned to disappear into the kitchen. Patty might have no sympathy for the man but I did. Money wasn’t everything after all. That was not the reason this place existed, it was for the food not the money.

It didn’t take long for me to whip up a quick stir-fry and put it on a plate. After I did, I slipped out of the back and found where they had dropped the pirate. I put the plate and a glass of water down in front of his rather pathetically beaten face. “Here, sweetheart. Try this, huh?” I said before hoisting myself to sit on the railing. I crossed my legs to better balance myself as the pirate glanced between me and the rice a few times. He didn’t look like he entirely trusted me but I wasn’t put off by that. That idiot Patty had just beaten him to a pulp.

After a minute, he gave a cry of delight and grabbed the plate before starting to scarf it down. “I don’t want to be ashamed but…this is the most delicious rice I have ever had in my whole life!” I could help but beam at the compliment. “I should not be ashamed…I don’t want to be ashamed but…I though I would not survive!” He garbled through food and tears.

I smiled wider. “It’s really delicious, right?” I did so adore it when people complimented my cooking!


	2. Butting Heads

I reached into my boot and pulled out two decorative hair chopstick things…I never had bothered to figure out if they had their own _actual_ name, but it hardly mattered. They were blue with a silver scroll design and had a few silver charms hanging from the end that weren’t too big or heavy. A few quick motions and the majority of my hair was done up in a messy but secure bun. Really, I should have put my hair up earlier but I had gotten distracted. People dying from starvation tended to do that to me.

When my hair was down it reached my mid back and while I loved my long hair getting it caught on fire from a stove was _not_ appealing. Last thing I needed was my head to be on fire. It had never happened before but I could imagine it easily enough. As long as my hair didn’t get butchered in a fight or burned by my absolutely-to-die-for Cherry Flambé, I’d keep it long.

“You are really cool!” someone shouted suddenly. I looked up and saw the Strawhat guy on the railing to the second floor. He was beaming down at where me and the pirate that was scarfing down my food were sitting. “I want you to cook for us! You’re almost dead. Haha!”

I blinked a bit. That wasn’t really a funny thing. Ya know, starving to death an’ all… “Hey, Chef Lady! Would you like to join me? Please, become my pirate chef!”

“What?”

In a matter of moments, the kid had dashed down and was sitting on the railing next to me, his legs crossed and swaying dangerously. “So, you’re a pirate?” I asked, despite the answer being blaringly obvious. “Why did you fire the cannon at us?”

“It was an accident caused by self-defense,” he said simply. I was seriously wondering if I would have to catch this kid. His constant rocking made me a bit nervous. Couldn’t he just sit still?

“Say what?” the other pirate asked in confusion.

I just sighed a bit before taking another drag of smoke. “I’ll warn you now, cutie pie, to not do anything stupid here. Because Owner used to be a very famous pirate. One of the best actually,” I supplied for him.

“What? That old man was a pirate?” the kid asked sounding bewildered.

I smiled at his reaction. “Mmhmm. For Zeff, this restaurant is his treasure. Besides, every chef here –with the exception of little ol’ me- used to be a cold-blooded pirate. But pirates are also our major customers.”

“No wonder this restaurant is in chaos,” the kid commented.

I couldn’t help but giggle a bit at that. “That’s usual, cutie pie. In fact, some of our guests come here just to _see_ our boys fight pirates.” I took another quick inhale off my cigarette. “That’s why all the part-time chefs ran away. Because they were afraid. They wouldn’t even stay for me and I did try to convince them…” I trailed off a bit with a frown. It wasn’t often I couldn’t finagle a guy to do something for me but they had been positively scared to death of this place after a week. I had no idea why. It wasn’t like any strong pirates had attacked in that time. They were all pretty weak.

“That’s why I have to work here for one year,” the kid said pointing to me in a sudden moment of brightness. “Anyway, would you like to join me?”

I shook my head. “Sorry, cutie pie. But I have a reason to stay here,” I replied with practiced ease. It wasn’t like I hadn’t gotten the offer before and I doubted it’d be the last.

“No!” he growled suddenly. “I refuse!”

“Huh? What do you mean?” I asked with a distinct feeling there was a sweatdrop on my head somewhere. What the hell was this kid ‘refusing’?

He folded his arms over his chest stubbornly. “I refuse your objection,” he announced. “You are a very good chef, so I want you to become a pirate with me,” he said firmly.

“Hey cutie, please listen-”

“What is you reason? Tell me,” he demanded.

I frowned a bit, not entirely willing to go into that with someone I had just met. No matter how much innocent brain-dead charm they had. “I’m sorry but I can’t tell you that, cutie.”

“But you just told me to listen to you!” he said exasperatedly.

I sighed in equal exasperation, “I meant that you should listen to others not that I’d tell you my reasons.”

“Why won’t you tell me?” he growled angrily. “I should beat you up!”

“What?!” I snapped, my temper flaring instantly at the threat. “You can’t beat up a lady!”

“Excuse me for interrupting-“

“What?!” both me and the kid turned instantly to the pirate sitting a few feet away.

“My name is Gin and I work for the Krieg pirates. You’re a pirate, right? What’s your goal?” he asked turning to the Strawhat kid.

The kid grinned widely, showing almost all of his teeth. “My goal is ‘One Piece’,” he announced. “That’s why I am heading to the Grand Line,” he added excitedly.

Gin looked surprised. “You said that you’re looking for a chef. I guess you don’t have many members, right?”

“Now I have five people including her,” he answered pointing at me.

“Wait, what?! No, you don’t!”

“You aren’t a bad person, so I want to warn you about something,” Gin said as they both ignored my protests. I was steadily growing more and more annoyed. I was _not_ used to being ignored. Much less by two guys. “Don’t ever go to the Grand Line!! You’re still young, so don’t waste your life there,” Gin said.

“Grand Line is just some part of the ocean,” Gin continued. “If you want to become a pirate, you can always go to other places.” It was reasonable but something about this kid made me think that the perfectly good reason wouldn’t be welcomed.

“Really? Why do you know a lot about the Grand Line?” the kid asked.

Gin buried his face in his hands. “No. I don’t know a thing about that place. That’s why I’m so afraid.” I frowned a bit. From what I had heard about Krieg’s pirates they were pretty rough and tumble guys yet this Gin guy was acting like a scared little girl. I hadn’t seriously acted like that since I was eleven. Not since I had begun learning how to fight.

The kid was frowning as well and seemed to be rather deep in thought. Poor kid would hurt himself if he kept that up. “So what’s your name, Cutie pie?” I asked with my best flirty smile.

He puffed his chest up instantly. “I’m Monkey D. Luffy and I’m gonna be King of the Pirates!”

I laughed a bit. This kid had a spunk I found I rather liked. “Well, Luffy, I’m Sonya. Assistant -and only female- chef of the Baratie, the best restaurant in all the Blues,” I introduced with a flourish of my cigarette wielding hand.

After a while of chatting, I decided to give Gin a small puddle-jumper boat we used around dock areas so that he could get out of there. His only ride had been the Marine ship and they had skedaddled a long time ago. “I gotta go now,” Gin said as he pushed the boat away from the Baratie a little. “But I warned you.”

“I’ll go to the Grand Line anyway,” Luffy said casually.

Gin laughed. “That’s up to you. I don’t have any right to stop you,” he replied. “Sonya…thank you. I owe you my life and that rice was very delicious,” he said turning to me. I was beaming again at the compliment. “Can I come back?”

“Anytime, lovely.”

“Hey kids!” The familiar voice of Zeff yelled from above and behind us.

Luffy whipped around. “It’s that old man!”

“Go on, love,” I said waving a bit to Gin. If Zeff had been upset about me feeding Gin then he would have interrupted me while I was still cooking.

Gin pulled his headband a bit to cover his eyes. “I’m sorry Sonya…I’m causing you trouble because I ate your food for free,” he said sounding extremely uncomfortable about it.

I smirked a bit and nudged the dishes that were sitting on the ground with my foot. After a second, there was a splash as they fell into the ocean. “Whatever do you mean, Gin dear? I don’t see any evidence of free food,” I said innocently. I blew him a flirty kiss as he dropped to his knees in a bow while the boat got further away. “Be careful and take care, lovely!”

“Sonya! Chore boy! Get to work now!” Zeff ordered angrily.

“Yes, yes,” I said with a slight wave. “Right away, Zeffy.”

I could hear Zeff’s growl from the lower deck. “How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that, you brat?!”

“At least a dozen more!” I called happily as I walked into the main dining room. Instantly my attention was called over to a man who was having dinner with his pretty fiancé. I sighed. Why did all the cute ones have to be taken?

Time seemed to fly by at lightning speeds as I tended to the guests. I took notice of every guy’s best feature as I poured wine and delivered food. Nice muscles, great eyes, a dark tan, good hair. It was all a blur of sexiness. Suddenly I heard a large shout. “Don’t you think it’s unfair?!” I heard Luffy shouting.

I looked up from the wine I was pouring with a frown and saw the group he was standing next to. “Are they his friends?” I wondered aloud. They seemed to be having a very good time, typical pirates.

My eyes fell on a handsome guy standing beside the table. I froze instantly. Damn, he was hot. He had green hair, a little odd but I’d seen worse. Fullbody had had _pink_. He had three golden earrings and a nice tan. Three swords were on his waist. I felt a smile crease my mouth; he was definitely someone I could get to know…

The girl at the table had short bright orange hair and was wearing a t-shirt with Belli written on the front and a skirt even shorter than mine. She had a nice figure and I felt myself getting annoyed. I hated competition…there was a reason that there was only _one_ female chef on the Baratie.

The last guy at the table was younger than the green haired swordsman and the girl by at least a year or two. He wore a plaid bandanna over curly black hair and had a long nose. For once I was hard pressed to find something likeable about the kid. He had no amazing physique, not a very impressive face, and a rather grating voice. ‘ _At least… he has a sense of humor…’_ I thought as he laughed incredibly loudly as the green haired man forced Luffy to swallow the water he had tried to slip a booger into.

I stepped up as Luffy fell to the ground clutching his throat. “I do hope nobody’s bothering you, handsome,” I said sliding up next to the green-haired man easily. Everyone jumped a bit and looked at me. Apparently, they hadn’t noticed me coming. The swordsman gave me an odd look, like he wasn’t sure how to react to my compliment. “You know, I’d almost consider going pirate if it meant seeing more of you. Too bad that’s just not in the cards,” I said with a sigh.

“Is that because of me?”

I whipped around and saw Zeff leaning against a table with his arms folded. “Zeff!” I hadn’t noticed him there otherwise I might have rethought that last sentence. Darn hunky green haired distractions.

Zeff pushed off of the table and cast a hard look my way. “This is a good chance. You just go and become a pirate,” he said in his no-nonsense voice. “We don’t want you anymore.”

“W-what?!” I took a few steps closer, my anger spiking now that the shock had worn off a bit. “I am the second chef of this restaurant. I’ve been here since we opened our doors. We’re short staffed as it is and you dare tell me that the restaurant doesn’t need me?! What are you playing at, crap geezer?”

“You always fight with customers. And whenever you see a guy with a half decent face you start flirting like there’s no tomorrow!” he growled out. “Your food is not that good and you will drag this restaurant down. Nobody here likes you and I think you know that. Therefore, you’d better get out of here and become a pirate or whatever you want. The best thing is that you’d get out of this restaurant as soon as possible.”

That stung. Damn, that really stung! I didn’t _always_ fight with the customers. Just the impolite ones. And so I flirted a bit, the men liked that! But what stung the most was the slight against my cooking. I worked hard to be a top-notch chef and he was just going to say something like that? I acted before I thought, grabbing his collar. “What are you talking about? You’re crazy! I’m the best chef you have! Nobody hates my food! There’s no way I’m leaving! I don’t care what you say!!”

Zeff grabbed my wrist and swung me around before I could pull back. “You dare hold my collar? You stupid eggplant!”

I couldn’t help the grunt of pain as my back slammed into a nearby table. I heard the distinct sound of wood splintering as the table collapsed to the ground. I rolled off the broken table with a slight groan. I should have known better than to attack Zeff like that…he’d _taught_ me how to fight. He knew how to counter my moves. “Dammit,” I muttered.

I vaguely noticed that Luffy’s friends had grabbed the food from the table before I hit and I would have felt a bit of happiness at that but was still way too pissed at Zeff. Speaking of, I was far from done with him. “Listen,” I growled out. “I don’t care how many times you tell me to leave, but I’ll be a chef here forever! I’ll be here till you’re dead, geezer!”

“I won’t die for a hundred years,” Zeff replied as he started walking out of the dinning room.

“Then that’s how long I’ll be here!” I snapped back.

“That’s good. You got permission from the owner,” Luffy said with a smile. “So, you can become a pirate now.”

I suppressed my harsh words but only just. He was kinda cute after all. I got to my feet and stormed out of the Baratie and onto the deck outside. After a minute, the fresh air cleared my head and I headed back into the dining room with my usual good humor almost restored.

Almost immediately, I noticed that Luffy’s friends’ table had been righted and they were eating again. Ah, I had to make it up to them. Especially the hot one. I quickly brought out a make up present of one of my personal favorite deserts. “I’m so sorry for the mess,” I said putting the desert on the table. “As an apology, I’ve ordered you a fruit in Macedonia along with a gran mane wine.”

The girl snatched up the desert instantly, “Thanks! You’re so kind!”

I could feel my eye twitch. I hadn’t been talking to _her._ “Eh heh, sure,” I muttered in annoyance. I had half a mind to snatch it back but my hip where I’d hit the table gave a particularly sharp throb and I thought better of it.

“Hey! What about us?” The long-nosed boy demanded. “That’s unfair, Lady Chef!”

I turned a smile on the kid. “I’ve also ordered hot tea. It’ll be out in a minute. I hope that’s alright.”

He almost instantly melted into a puddle and I smiled. He would be the easy one. “T-that’s fine…” he said in a dreamy voice.

Suddenly I noticed a small pile of food on his plate and frowned. “You didn’t finish your mushrooms.”

“Ah, I left them because I hate mushrooms. I ate a poison mushroom when I was young,” he explained looking a bit nervous.

“But, this isn’t a poison mushroom, can’t you please eat it?” I asked giving him a pout that was almost guaranteed to cause him to melt. And he did. I didn’t know it was possible for a human being to turn boneless but he managed it.

“Y-yes, ma’am,” he said in a high simpering voice.

“By the way, Miss Chef?” The girl called.

I turned; trying to maintain a pleasant look but not quite sure if I made it. “The food here is quite expensive for my friend here…” She said pointing to the swordsman who looked very surprised. “You see he’s in debt already!”

I turned and smiled widely at him. “Well, don’t you worry, sweetheart. I’ll take care of your bill for you.” I glanced over my shoulder at the girl. “But you still have to pay,” I added dully. There was no way I was paying for her to eat here.

The girl scowled but I ignored her and went to greet the customers that just walked in. “What the hell was that about?” Zoro asked leaning across the table.

“Oh please, it’s obvious she likes you. I’m just trying to help you out. I’ll just add it on to your debt,” Nami replied with a superior smile.

“Cutie pie!” I called from the doorway. “You know you’re supposed to be working!” I said giving him a slight glare.

Luffy whined a bit. “But Sonya…”

“No buts,” I said wrapping an arm around his neck and almost dragging him away. “When the customer comes in you have to bring them a hot towel. Do you understand, Cutie?”


	3. Don Krieg

It had been four days since Luffy and his friends had arrived at the Baratie. Four days in which Luffy had broken no less than fifty-eight plates, twenty bowls, almost five-dozen glasses, and bent three knives (don’t ask me how, I have no idea). Suddenly, I heard the sound of a glass shattering. ‘ _Not again…’_

“That’s Don Krieg’s Pirate Ship!” Someone screamed.

My head shot up instantly. “The sand glasses with a skull, that’s the symbol of Krieg!” Another person shouted in clear fear. “That must be Krieg!”

“What is he doing here?”

I raised an eyebrow. Well, that was a pretty stupid question. People usually go to restaurants when they wanted food. “See, Patty? They have finally come. Why don’t you go and chase them out?” Carne, one of the more senior chefs who always wore small round sunglasses, shouted frantically.

“That’s impossible! They have more than five thousand crew members, right?” Patty asked nervously as he clutched his head with both hands. “Why do they all have to come to avenge one guy?”

“I don’t care if you say it’s impossible or not! We saw them with our own eyes, right?!” another chef shouted angrily.

“That’s a really huge ship. Maybe Gin came back to repay you!” Luffy suggested happily.

I shook my head slightly, still staring at the ship that was even bigger than the Baratie. I’d never seen a ship that large and it gave me a bad feeling. “I don’t think so,” I replied slowly. “But it feels very strange. That ship looks so worn out.” I finished, still staring at the huge roaring lion’s head that was half torn apart. One mast was knocked to the side and every sail was full of huge holes.

Luffy looked at me curiously. I took a drag from my cigarette, suddenly realizing why this Krieg guy was so feared. It took a lot of power to maintain control on a ship that big. But that wasn’t the only reason I was nervous. “That huge ship must have been through some kind of natural disaster. I don’t think it’s the work of human beings…” At least, I really – _really-_ hoped it wasn’t. What kind of human would be able to do such damage to a ship like that?

Suddenly, the doors slammed open and a large shadowy figure appeared in the open doorway. A collective gasp went up from the patrons and a number of chefs. I instantly recognized Gin, supporting a larger man who looked about ready to collapse. The man had on a captain’s coat with fur trimming, a rather gaudy leopard print shirt and a thick gold chain for a necklace. The man –who I assumed was Don Krieg- was a mess. He could barely even look up from the floor. “Excuse us! Could you give me some food and water?” he asked through short labored breaths. “The money is not a problem.”

“What’s this?” Patty asked looking just as stunned as everyone else –including myself I’m sure- did. “Is that shabby, poor-looking man…Krieg?”

“He looks so hungry and thirsty,” Luffy whispered.

Almost as soon as he said that Krieg collapsed onto his face. Gin instantly leapt forward to his side. “Captain Krieg!” Gin turned frantic eyes to everyone in the restaurant. “Please help him or he’ll die!”

I clenched my fists as Patty suddenly burst into huge gwaffs of laughter. “This is impossible! Is this really Don Krieg, the scariest pirate of the East Blue?”

“We have money, so we are your customers!” Gin shouted.

That was it. I turned on my heel and went into the kitchen. There was no way in hell I could sit there and watch a man starve to death. I just couldn’t. I grabbed the nearest plate of food I came to and a pitcher of water. He wouldn’t care about it being fancy or not. When you were starving it didn’t matter what it was. You’d eat anything.

I re-entered the dining room and saw Krieg bowing down in front of Patty. “Please. Even a tiny food particle. Anything,” he begged.

Gin was a mess of upset tears. “Boss.”

“Eh? You think that we’ll feel sorry for you?” Patty asked, unmoved as always.

“Pardon, Patty, dear,” I said slipping past him. But I knew he wouldn’t let me get past him so I hooked out my foot at the last second and Patty instantly started to fall, slamming his head pretty hard against a nearby table as he did. I was pretty sure he was out cold for a little while. “Here, Gin. Give him this,” I said holding the plate out.

Krieg and Gin looked up in shock. “Sonya-chan!”

“Thanks!” Krieg cried as he started shoveling the rice into his mouth, foregoing any utensils in his haste.

“Sonya! Take that rice back!” A chef shouted from behind me. “Don’t you know who he is?”

“He’s the trickiest pirate of the East Blue!” Carne answered. “He used to be a prisoner, then a marine. He killed the leader of the ship, took the ship, and then became a pirate! Sometimes, he pretends to be a marine and attacks the towns. Or he’ll use a white flag to trick enemy ships. He doesn’t care what the strategy is as long as he wins! That’s why he’s become so powerful! He’s very strong. After he finishes eating, I don’t think he’ll leave. Just let that worthless man die for the peace of this world!!” Carne shouted.

I felt my eye twitch in annoyance. Why did they not get it? How could they just let someone starve like that? Suddenly, something huge and very hard slammed into my chin and neck. I let out a cry of surprise and pain as I was knocked clear off my feet and went flying back. I heard someone cry my name as I slid backwards against the wooden floor.

I lay there staring at the ceiling as I saw stars. That had _really_ hurt. Much worse than Zeff’s peg leg. I could taste blood in my mouth. “What’s the meaning of this?!” I heard Gin shouting. “I took you here because you promised me that you wouldn’t hurt anyone here! Besides, that woman is the person who saved my life!”

I heard Gin cry out in pain as I slowly rolled over. “This feeling is really great!” Krieg said.

“Classless bastard…sucker punching a girl...” I muttered as I finally managed to face the pirate again. He was holding Gin tightly by the bicep and almost lifting him into the air.

“It’s a very good restaurant, so I will take it,” Krieg announced as he let Gin drop to the ground heavily.

Carne made a slight growling noise. “I told you. That’s how Krieg is! Now he wants to take our ship!”

The customers streamed out of the Baratie with screams of ‘Let’s go before we get killed!’ and the like. Within only a few minutes, the Baratie was completely empty of civilians.

“Ouch!” Patty groaned as he slowly woke up. “What’s with all the noise?”

I started to push myself back up, slowly since I was still a little unsteady from the force of the punch or whatever it had been. “Captain Krieg! What about the promise?” Gin asked.

“Hey, Gin! Are you alright?” Luffy called.

Gin seemed alright but he didn’t answer. Patty interrupted him by finally realizing that Krieg was standing right in front of him. “Wha…What?!” he quickly crawled backwards a bit.

“Our ship is worn out, so I want a new one. After we’re done with you, you’d better get the hell out of here,” Krieg said patting his stomach a bit. “Right now, I have about hundred crewmen on my ship! They are all starving and injured. First, prepare food for a hundred people and give it to them. There were many men that already died from starvation so hurry up!” Krieg ordered.

“You want us to bring food to your pirates, and when they regain their strength they will attack us?!” Carne repeated in shock. “I refuse to do it!”

“Refuse? It seems that you’re misunderstanding me. I did not _ask_ you to serve my crew. This is an order. Whoever dares to refuse must die!” Krieg shouted as a feral look crossed his face. It was very unattractive. A number of the chefs gave frightened steps back.

“Sonya-chan! I’m sorry. I never thought that it would turn out this way,” Gin cried into his arms and the floor.

I sighed a bit as I turned towards the kitchen again. It was the risk you took when you were nice to someone. “It’s all your fault!” Patty snapped turning to me. “Where do you think you’re going, Sonya?!”

I paused and took out a cigarette before lighting it. “To the kitchen,” I answered before exhaling a long stream of smoke. “I’ll prepare the food for them.”

“What?!” The chefs shouted in shock.

Gin looked just as shocked though. “S-sonya-chan?”

“That’s the best decision,” Krieg said sounding very satisfied.

“Sonya.” I couldn’t really tell what Luffy was thinking. He looked a bit surprised but his voice didn’t show it. It was surprising how suddenly difficult it was to read him.

Suddenly, all the chefs pulled out pistols and had me surrounded. _‘Okay, that’s…unsettling,’_ I thought as I glanced around the circle of gun barrels. I never would have imagined they’d pull a single gun on me, much less over half a dozen.

“What are you Don Krieg’s pet, now?” One of them asked. “We won’t let you go into the kitchen. From now on, stop doing stupid, childish, things!”

I looked around the circle and coolly met each of their eyes. I took a long drag from my cigarette. “So what? You gonna shoot me? Because I’m still going to make that food.” They all looked absolutely flabbergasted. “I know how bad these people are. But, to be blunt, it’s none of my business. My job is to feed people. And I love that job. Thinking about what they might do after isn’t part of it. It doesn’t concern me because nobody -no matter what they’ve done or plan to do- deserves to starve. We’re chefs, sweethearts, and if there is someone asking for food, then we must cook for them. And what, exactly, is childish about that?”

Suddenly, I felt a hard slam against the back of my neck and I tumbled forward with a cry of pain. _‘Twice in one day?! I must be getting slow…’_ I thought as someone cried out, “Patty!”

“Tie her up,” Patty ordered.

Carne and another chef grabbed me by the arms and picked me half off the ground. “You actually hit me, Patty, dear?…I’m shocked,” I said as they held me between them. I actually was a bit shocked. While, yes me and Patty never really saw eye to eye, we’d never really came to blows over it before.

“Sonya! You always sneaked food from the kitchen and gave it to the people that I kicked off. I won’t say that it’s right or wrong. But this time, it’s all absolutely your fault,” He said pointing at me accusingly. “I won’t let you do anything anymore. I will protect this restaurant by myself.”

I frowned a bit. I could whip Patty’s butt and Krieg was no pushover. That punch had winded me for a good five minutes. Patty wouldn’t stand a chance. “We’re lucky that we got only one enemy, even if he is Don Krieg. I don’t think he can beat all of us,” Patty continued. “This place is a floating restaurant with many pirates as our customers. So, we have to be well-prepared to welcome any kind of customers,” He said as he pulled out his rather large bazooka-like gun from a nearby closet. “After the meal, why don’t you have some of this heavy dessert!!! Syrup Canon!!” He fired off a bullet right at Krieg’s chest.

“This must be a joke,” Krieg said right before the bullet hit and exploded against his chest.

“Boss!” Gin shouted in horror.

When the smoke cleared the doors had been blasted clean off their hinges. “I broke the door?” Patty said not sounding terribly shocked. “That’s bad. Owner will be so upset.”

“Don’t worry. You did it to protect our restaurant,” Carne dismissed.

I scoffed slightly. “So, what are you going to do with the rest of Krieg’s crew?” I asked despite knowing that I wouldn’t like the answer much.

“Just spread them with butter and burn them up!” Patty answered glancing over at me with a cocky smile.

“That sounds delicious, baldy!” Everyone’s head snapped over to the door where Don Krieg was emerging from the broken door’s shadow.

“That’s crazy!” Patty screamed.

“Your dessert tasted very bad,” Krieg stated. “This restaurant really sucks!”

Krieg had thick armor on with his jolly roger stamped onto the two huge pauldrons on his shoulders. “He’s wearing iron armor!” Luffy shouted.

“How the hell did he hide that?” I wondered aloud.

But my question went unanswered. “It’s just simple armor! Let’s get him, everyone. HA!!!” Patty lead the charge towards the pirate captain. Each chef was bearing a large utensil of some sort. Patty himself had a fork while Carne had a knife.

“This is so annoying!!” Krieg shouted as his armor sprung open and a hail of bullets rained down on the charging chefs. Most of them fell with cries of pain as the bullets ripped through their bodies.

“T-the bullets!! They came out of his armor!” I couldn’t help but shout it. I was too stunned to not. Who’d ever heard of guns hidden in armor!?

“Don’t ever try to go against me, weaklings! I am the strongest man. Remember that,” Krieg roared. “The powerful arms! The iron body! The diamond fist that can destroy everything. And many secret weapons that I have equipped myself with. I got more than five thousand men and fifty ships! I always win, and everyone accepts my power! When I order you to prepare food, you have to follow my order no matter what. Whoever dares to go against me-”

Suddenly, Zeff dropping a huge bag at his feet cut him off. “Owner Zeff?!” The chefs, who had been slowly getting up, exclaimed.

“You want food for a hundred people, right? Take this to your crew,” Zeff said as if none of the ruckus had even happened. I felt like smiling a little but couldn’t quite manage it. I knew Zeff would get it. Zeff always did, but then he knew me far better than anyone else did.

“Zeff? You’re Zeff?” Krieg repeated in shock.

“What are you thinking, Owner? If we let those pirates have food, once they regain their strength, they will take this ship!” the chefs cried in horror.

Zeff didn’t seem bothered by their reaction though. “That will depend on their spirits,” he replied casually.

“Wha?”

“Isn’t that right, fugitives from the grand line?” Zeff asked giving Krieg a distinctly unimpressed look.

There was near pandemonium amongst the chefs. “Unbelievable!”

“Krieg is a fugitive from the grand line? Event he most powerful pirate in East Blue and his fifty ships?” Carne asked. “They still can’t live in the Grand Line?!”

I was in a bit of shock myself. They had gone to the Grand Line and been defeated by it? “I…I guess that explains the wreck of a ship…” I muttered to myself. The Grand Line was a brutal place; everyone knew that. Hundreds of crews never even came back.

“Grand Line!?” Luffy shouted in surprise.

“You are… Red Leg Zeff?!” Krieg cried staring at Zeff with wide eyes. After a minute his shock wore off a bit. “You are still alive, Red Leg Zeff? The famous pirate who is both Captain and Chef of his ship?”

I glanced over at Zeff, not particularly liking where this conversation was heading. Zeff didn’t even really talk to _me_ about his past. “So, what if I am still alive?” Zeff asked. “It’s none of your business. As you can see, now I just live as a chef.”

Krieg laughed a bit. “It’s so lucky for me. As I see it, it seems that you ‘have to’ be a chef because you have no choice left.” I couldn’t help but wince at that clear reference to Zeff’s peg leg. “You are not the same Zeff, the Red Leg, that I used to know. When people talk about Zeff, they think of the man who has a very powerful kick. And every time he fought, he’d never use his hands. Your one kick could destroy a whole cliff. Even if you kicked iron, you would leave your foot mark behind.”

I clenched my hand around the hem of my skirt. I really hated this guy for bringing up what Zeff had lost. “The name ‘Red Leg’ came from that powerful kick. Every time you kicked your enemy, his blood would cover your leg and turn it red. Even though you did not die in an accident as I’ve heard, you _have_ lost one leg, which means that you don’t have any more power.”

I wanted so badly to make this guy shut up but at the same time I had no idea what to say. For once, I was without some sort of comeback and all that hadn’t even been directed at _me._ “Even though I can’t fight, I can still cook as long as I have these two hands,” Zeff said holding up his hands. “So, what is your point by saying all that?” he asked.

“You’ve been to the Grand Line and returned back safely, right? During that time, you must have written a journal. I want to have that journal from you,” Krieg declared boldly.

“Wow! You’ve been to the Grand Line?” Luffy asked with stars practically in his eyes.

Zeff looked like he was getting annoyed. “My journal? Sure, I have it. But I won’t give it to you. That journal is the pride of my crew and myself while we were traveling together. It would just be too much I if gave it to you.”

“So, I’ll just have to use my strength and take it from you,” Krieg said raising a fist. “Even though I am a fugitive from the Grand Line, I am still Don Krieg, the strongest man of the East Blue. I can get through the Grand Line if I have enough men and power. I’ve never been afraid of that place like all the other wimps. I lost because I didn’t have enough _information_. That’s why I need that journal.”

“Keep on dreaming! We lose this restaurant, where are we gonna live?” Patty demanded while ignoring the restraining hand of another chef on his shoulder.

“Right! Every chef here has been fired from every other restaurant. Only this place will hire us!” Carne added.

“Owner Zeff is the only man who accepts us and hires us to work for him!”

“We won’t let you have this restaurant!”

“Shut up!!” Krieg snapped. “Haven’t you realized the difference between you and me? I’ve already shown you how strong I am. After I get that journal, I will gather men and go back to the Grand Line. I will acquire ‘One Piece’ the ultimate treasure, and I will be the greatest pirate of all!”

Suddenly, Luffy stepped to the front, his hands clenched at his sides and the happy-go-luck look completely evaporated. “Wait a minute,” he said pointing to Krieg. “I am the one who will become the greatest pirate, not you!” I was completely shocked at the change in him. Where had that cute kid who broke everything go?

“Kid!” Patty yelled in shock. “Come back here or you’ll be killed!”

Luffy just ignored the chef. “This is the only thing that I just can’t concede!”

“What the hell are you saying, kid?” Krieg asked looking very far from amused. “You can take those words back.”

“I don’t have to take them back,” Luffy said with a grin. “Because I speak the truth!”

Krieg’s face darkened even more. “This is not a joke.”

“I know!” Luffy said, still grinning like a madman.

“Did you hear that? Krieg said that he couldn’t get through the grand line,” someone said from the side of the room. I recognized the vaguely annoying voice of one of Luffy’s friends instantly, Usopp, if I was remembering the brief introductions we’d had correctly. “Don’t be upset but I don’t think we should go there.”

“You’d better shut up,” The swordsman, Zoro, said dully. “Are you going to fight, Luffy? Need some help?” he asked gripping the white-sheathed katana sitting casually across his shoulder.

“You’re still here?” Luffy asked with a bit of surprise. “No, I don’t need any help, just sit there.” I could help but wonder who the hell these people _were_. They were twice as strange as any of us Baratie chefs.

Krieg started laughing. First it was only a chuckle but it quickly grew into a full blown, head back, laughing fit. “Are they your crew? Only a bunch of kids!”

“That’s not all,” Luffy protested. “I also have two more!” he claimed holding two fingers up.

I gave a slight start. “Sweetie pie, I think you accidentally counted _me_ again…”

“Stop fooling around, kid!” Krieg shouted, suddenly very angry. “Because I lacked information, my five thousand men were destroyed in seven days on that evil sea!”

“Wha-Seven days!?” Patty cried.

“Krieg’s pirates were destroyed in only seven days?!”

Carne was positively sweating bullets at the news. “What’s going on here?”

“Did you hear that? Fifty ships were destroyed in only one week!” Usopp cried with huge streams of tears running down his cheeks.

“That’s so interesting!” The swordsman stated, looking as unworried as Luffy did.

“I’m not kidding because I hate that,” Krieg said once the screams of surprise had died down a little. “If anyone doesn’t believe me, I will kill that person. Listen-” he added as he picked up the large bag of food. “I will give everyone a chance to think it over while I am taking this food back to my crew. I’ll be back. If you don’t want to die, just go while my crew is eating.”

Krieg turned and started walking out. “My goal is just a journal and this ship! If you want to die, I’ll help you. Even though that would cost me some time.”

The dinning room was silent for a few minutes until Gin ducked his head. “Sonya-chan! I am very very sorry. I never thought that it would come out like this! I-”

“You don’t have to apologize for feeling guilty,” Zeff interrupted. Everyone –except myself- looked over at him in surprise. “Everyone here has done something for their own sakes.”

“Owner?!” Patty asked. “Even you are protecting Sonya?! Why?” I grit my teeth a bit at the question. Why the hell wouldn’t he? Patty of all people knew how long the two of us had known each other…

“Right! This all happened because of Sonya!”

“She wants to destroy your beloved restaurant!”

I was more than a bit shocked at that. Could they really believe that? I loved this place just as much as any of them! I’d never try to destroy it. “So, Sonya! Have you come up with any good ideas to take Owner’s place?” They demanded turning to me angrily. “That’s what you always wanted, right?!”

“ **Shut up, you idiots!!”** Zeff snapped. The chefs looked over at him in surprise. “Have you ever been through a situation where you had no food to eat or water to drink? Have you ever known the suffering of being without food or drink in the middle of the sea? Until you have don’t go questioning other people’s motives!”

I could feel the curious stares as I lit a replacement cigarette with my lighter. I almost wished that Zeff hadn’t said anything. Slowly, I got to my feet and brushed the dirt from my clothes. “Eh? What do you mean, Owner?” Patty questioned.

“I don’t have time to talk about the past,” Zeff said simply. “If you want to, why don’t you just get out of here through the back door?”

Almost instantly the chefs picked up their utensil modeled weapons. “I will stay here and fight,” Patty declared. “I won’t let him attack our restaurant.”

“Me too. Because this is the place where I work.”

“We don’t have anywhere else to go!”

“You’ve already seen how strong Captain Krieg is! You’d better get out of here!” Gin shouted from where he was still sitting on the floor.

I sighed, exhaling a puff of smoke as I did. “Gin, Sweetheart, I must clarify something for you. My job is to give food to starving people. But now that I’ve done that, I have no more obligation to be kind. That man stole our food and I have every right to kill him for it. The Baratie is the closest thing to a home I’ve had and whoever tries to take that away, even if it were you, will be killed. Do you understand, Gin?”

“You’re the one that gave food to him in the first place!” Patty snapped angrily. “And now you’re threatening to kill him? What’s up with you, Sonya? Are you bipolar or something?”

“Patty love, that’s none of your business I’m afraid,” I said with a sigh. It really wasn’t their business. That was between myself and Zeff.

“See? She’s good right?” Luffy said to his friends as he pointed to me. My eye twitched a little. What was I a dog?

“I don’t care about her!” Ussop said. ‘ _Gee, thanks…’_ I thought sourly. “We’d better get out of here first!”

Zoro sighed a bit. “Calm down! The enemy is just a bunch of sick people.”

“Right!” Luffy agreed confidently. “Besides, I have to fight him. If he’s that good, it’ll be either him or me that will be killed.”

I sighed a bit. It looked like it was unavoidable then. I didn’t much like getting into huge fights but this was special. The Baratie I was willing to risk my life for a dozen times over. I turned and started to walk up the stairs. “HEY!” Patty screamed. “Where do you think you’re going, Sonya?”

“To change of course, dear,” I said flicking my cigarette into the nearby fireplace. “I can’t very well fight in this skirt,” I added gesturing to the pencil skirt I was wearing. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. I _could._ But it was harder to do and I’d probably rip it straight down the seam or something.


	4. Hawk Eyes

It only took me a few minutes to change out of my skirt and into a slick pair of black pants that zipped up the back instead of the front. The pants were almost skin-tight, a helpful feature when you were banking on every fraction of a second to help you out. Even the slightest wind resistance could matter in a fight.

After I tightened the thin silver belt (that was more for aesthetics than necessity) around my waist, I pulled on a pair of boots. This time, instead of the knee-high boots I picked a pair of white ankle boots with much shorter heels that were covered with steel and had reinforced toes on the inside. I decided that the shirt would be just fine and left that as it was. But I did wipe the make-up off my face. If the fight was hard –and it appeared as if it would be- I wouldn’t want mascara getting in my eyes.

I redid my hair. Pulling a few loose strands back and fastening it all with a large clip that was a bit more trustworthy than the chopstick method. Other than the bangs that still hung in my face, all of my hair was tightly pulled back so that it wouldn’t get in the way. All in all the change only took ten to fifteen minutes tops. I had gotten pretty good at fast clothing changes even if I did usually milk it to annoy Zeff.

After I finished that, I quickly made my way downstairs again. Zeff looked me over and raised an eyebrow. “The white boots?” I could understand his surprise. I didn’t often wear these boots. The reinforcement and metal heels made them a bit heavier than I liked and I didn’t often need the extra layer anyway.

I shrugged and took a drag from my cigarette. “I figured it couldn’t hurt,” I replied casually.

“Hey, Gin!” Luffy called.

“Huh?”

“You told us that you didn’t know anything about the Grand Line, but you’ve been there, right?” Luffy asked.

“I don’t know anything because I still can’t believe what happened to us,” Gin said, clutching his head in what appeared to be pain. “After we’ve been there for seven days, I’m still not sure if it was a dream or the truth. It happened so fast. Fifty powerful pirate ships were destroyed by only one man!”

“You must be kidding!!”

“What did you say?!”

I almost choked on my newly lit cigarette. Only one man had destroyed fifty ships?! It was…it was just impossible to imagine! “How’s that possible?!” I asked. “How can only one person destroy all those troops?”

“While we were confused, our ships were sunk one by one. If a storm hadn’t rolled in, our mother ship would have been destroyed, too,” Gin said. He was practically a shaking mess on the ground just talking about it. “I don’t know whether the other ships survived or not. It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever encountered. It’s hard to believe this nightmare. When we saw that man’s eyes, we felt that we were dead already. I don’t want to think about that hawk-eyed man!”

“The powerful Krieg pirates were completely destroyed by only one man?!”

Gin just quivered on the ground and didn’t answer. “It must have been ‘Hawk Eyes’,” Zeff commented casually.

“H-Hawk Eyes?”

Zeff nodded before folding his arms over his chest. “Based on your story, the ‘eyes that look like hawk eyes’ might not be enough evidence. But if that man could do something like that, I think it is enough to believe that he was Hawk Eyes.”

“H-Hawk Eyes…” Usopp repeated with huge eyes. “Do you know who he is?”

“I don’t know. Who?” Luffy asked back without an ounce of concern.

“He’s the person I’m looking for,” Zoro said, leaning heavily on the table. “From what Johnny told me, this restaurant…” he broke off there for a minute but quickly grew angry. “That stupid Johnny gave me wrong information!”

“What’s wrong with Johnny?” Luffy asked curiously.

“Nothing,” Zoro answered shortly.

I rolled the cigarette in my hand a bit as I looked back to Gin. “He fought all the troops by himself. Did you do something to piss him off, Sweetheart?”

“I don’t remember anything. Everything happened so suddenly,” Gin muttered.

“Maybe it’s because you guys interrupted his nap,” Zeff suggested.

“Don’t joke around!” Gin shouted. “If that’s true, why would he destroy our fifty ships?”

“You don’t have to get so upset,” Zeff said putting a hand to his chin in thought. “I guess it’s just because many people said that the Grand Line is a dangerous place like that. People’ll go ballistic over little things.”

“You mean it’s not strange that this happened to them?” Zoro asked with a bit of surprise.

Luffy laughed a bit. “Wow! That’s so exciting! I really have to go there!” he said practically shaking with excitement.

“Aren’t you afraid at all?” Usopp demanded. Apparently not.

“That also means my goal really does involve the Grand Line. Because that man is there,” Zoro said leaning back in his chair and resting his hands over the tops of his three katana.

I blinked a little. He was actually going to go _looking_ for this Hawk Eye guy? Why on Earth would he do that? ‘ _Handsome doesn’t mean smart, Sonya,’_ I reminded myself as I took a drag from my cigarette. “Loves, you do know that you’re all insane right? You’re going to go and get your pretty little heads chopped off.”

Zoro scowled at me. “Maybe we will die. But that doesn’t mean we’re crazy. After I decided that I would become an invincible swordsman, I left my life behind. The only person who has the right to call me crazy is me,” he said. “And can you quit it with the pet names, already?”

I didn’t get the chance to react to the last bit. “Yes. Me too!” Luffy shouted raising an arm and waving it around like a lunatic.

“That’s true for a real man like me,” Usopp agreed folding his arms and trying to look dignified despite the fact that he was shaking.

Zoro hit the side of his head with the handle of one sword. “Stop lying!”

I wasn’t sure how to take the swordsman’s statement. They were really willing to go there and quite possibly die? One side of me admired their determination but the other –more sensible- side was telling me that their chances were so slim it almost didn’t register as a chance. “Jeeze, that’s so crazy…” I muttered.

“You still don’t understand what’s going on?” Patty shouted at the top of his lungs. I turned and saw the prongs of a giant fork a little closer than I was really comfortable with. I backed up a bit instantly. “The ship that’s parked in front of our restaurant now is the giant galleon ship that belongs to Don Krieg, the leader of pirate troops! It is also the ship of the scariest pirate of the East Blue! Do you understand now? You can do any crazy thing on Earth after you take care of this thing!”

“Get that fork outta my face, Patty,” I snapped knocking the weapon to the side slightly.

The sound of a large riot filled the air. I raised an eyebrow; it hadn’t been an hour yet. Krieg hadn’t given us as much time as he said. But then, I was hardly surprised by that. “Here they come! I can hear their noise!” the chefs clamored around the door with their weapons. “We have to protect our restaurant.”

“Get out of our way, you stupid chefs!” the pirates screamed as they jumped onto the deck and started their attack.

Suddenly, Krieg’s ship seemed to implode, causing huge waves to toss the Baratie around like a toy. “Wha?!”

“What’s happening?!?” Krieg shouted.

“Captain Krieg, our ship-” the pirates were interrupted by their own scream for a minute. “Is cut in pieces!!”

“Cut in pieces? The giant galleon ship is cut in pieces! This is crazy!!” Krieg screamed in disbelief as his ship continued to break apart violently. “Is this even possible?!” The collapsing ship started to sink, creating a whirlpool from the suction.

“Damn! Nami, Yosaku, and Johnny are still on our ship!” Zoro shouted as he, Usopp, and Luffy started making a dash for the door.

“Maybe we’re too late!” Usopp cried as he jumped over the table.

“Pull up the anchor!” Zeff shouted. “Otherwise our ship will be sucked into the whirlpool!!”

The chefs instantly hurried to do just that as the waves made the Baratie lurch violently. I bent my knees a bit as a particularly large wave rocked the ship. I followed Zeff out onto the deck of the ship and saw a small one-man vessel coming closer. “That man!” Zeff said sounding startled.

“Who is that, Zeff?” I breathed as the sea started to settle down a bit. I didn’t like the look of this at all. Krieg’s ship was a shredded mess of deck, masts, and sails. The majority of the ship already sunk and the rest didn’t look far behind.

“What is happening to them?” one of the chefs cried as several of them ran out onto the deck now that the anchor had been brought up.

The galleon shifted and rocked, sending pirates tumbling into the ocean. “I don’t know. Maybe one of their bombs exploded,” another chef replied.

“Don’t be stupid!” I snapped. “There wasn’t any explosion! The whole thing was shredded!”

Then I heard a different kind of shouting from another part of the deck. “Damn it! I thought that she changed, but she’s still the same person as before!!” Zoro shouted before punching the side of the Baratie.

“We’re doomed!” Usopp cried.

“What happened now?” I called, looking around the corner to better see where they were.

“That witch stole our ship!” Zoro snapped.

I raised an eyebrow. Who robbed their own friends? “Wait! I can still see our ship!” Luffy said peering out across the ocean with his hands shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun.

“What?” his friends asked in surprise.

“Look!” he said pointing in the distance where the ship could just be seen. “Let’s go after it!!” he turned to two men that I hadn’t been introduced to. “Yosaku, Johnny. How about your boat?” he asked.

“It’s still here,” they answered in unison. Luffy turned to Zoro and Usopp instantly.

“Just leave her. There is no reason to follow her,” Zoro stated before Luffy could even begin to ask them.

Usopp looked highly annoyed at that. “But the ship is important. That ship is-”

“I want only her to be our navigator!” Luffy declared.

Zoro and Usopp looked a little surprised. The swordsman sighed, “Okay. Okay. I get it,” he said after a minute of Luffy’s stern expression. “You really give me a headache. Let’s go, Usopp!”

“Okay!” Usopp said hurrying over.

“Zoro-sempai. Over here! We have prepared our boat for you,” Johnny and Yosaku said from a small boat that was bobbing nearby.

Usopp paused and turned back to Luffy. “How about you, Luffy?”

“I’ll stay here,” he said jerking his thumb back at the Baratie. “Because I don’t want to owe them.”

“Take care. This place is pretty dangerous.” Zoro warned.

“Got it.”

Suddenly, another shout drew my attention back to the water. “That man!!!” My eyes searched for the source of the shout but I wasn’t able to find it. Nearest I could tell, was that it was coming from the Galleon. “Captain Krieg! That man is the person who destroyed our ships!!”

“He chased us here? Does he want to kill us?!” another pirate screeched in fright.

I could just barely make out a human sitting against the single mast of the boat. How it was moving I couldn’t fathom as the black sail was rolled up. A few candles were flickering in the wind from their spots on the railing of the ship. Somehow, it eerily reminded me of a funeral. The giant cross shape didn’t help to dispel the image.

“He can destroy fifty ships by himself?” Patty asked.

“But he looks like a normal person,” Carne said. “Besides he doesn’t have any weapons.”

Zeff shook his head a bit. “If you want to see his weapon, it’s on his back.”

My eyes widened a bit. What I had originally took for a cross was actually the handle of a huge sword. “I don’t like the looks of this, Zeff,” I said shifting my weight uneasily.

“That’s impossible! He only used his sword to cut the ship!” A chef yelled in shock.

“Yes. Because he is Hawk Eyes, the greatest swordsman in the world,” Zeff stated.

I could finally see the man a bit clearer and noticed that he was tall. Or at least he seemed tall as he was still sitting against the mast. He wore a flamboyant printed shirt under an open trench coat that showed off his well-sculpted chest and abdomen. Baggy pants were tucked into shiny black boots that had two belts around his ankles. He moved his head and the large brimmed hat moved enough that I could see his thin beard and piercing eyes. It wasn’t hard at all to see where he’d gotten his name. Those were a predator’s eyes.

“This is the end…” one of Krieg’s men whimpered. “Damn you! You don’t have anything to do with us. Why do you have to follow us?” he shouted desperately.

“I just want to kill time,” he replied. I shivered a bit. This guy was quite possibly insane. He hunted human beings down to keep himself entertained? What kind of a sadistic bastard did that?!

The pirate pulled out his pistols. “Stop insulting us!!!” he shouted before firing both of them at the swordsman. Hawk Eyes whipped his sword out and the bullets seemingly curved, missing the intended target by several feet. “He missed?!”

“No matter how many times you try, you will miss shooting.” My eyes flicked over and saw Zoro standing there. Why hadn’t he gone yet? “He uses his sword to change the course of the bullets,” he explained.

“Who are you!?” The pirates demanded.

Zoro just ignored them, eyes fixed on Hawk Eyes. “I’ve never seen someone with such a gentle skill before,” he said.

“If a sword doesn’t have gentleness, it is not strong,” Hawk Eyes stated as he sheathed the monstrous black blade. Gentleness? The crap were they talking about!?

“You used that sword to cut that giant ship? Super,” Zoro said smiling like a lunatic. “The Ultimate Power! I have looked for you for a long time,” he said removing a piece of dark green fabric from around his bicep.

“What do you want from me?” Hawk Eyes asked.

Zoro tied the bandanna around his head, making his eyes seem even darker than before. “The ultimate power. You’re free, right? Why don’t you fight me?”

“What?!” I blurted before I could stop myself. I accepted that he might not be the smartest guy but this was purely suicidal.

“He is Zoro!” One of Krieg’s pirates shouted. “Roronoa Zoro of the Three Swords Style!”

“The pirate hunter?” Krieg muttered in shock.

I blinked a bit in surprise as well. “Him?” Somehow the name hadn’t clicked before. It had never occurred to me that this Zoro was the rather famous –at least in the East Blue- pirate hunter.

“Hey!” Usopp called. “This is not a good time. Our ship is almost out of sight!!”

“I really feel sorry for you, weakling,” Hawk Eyes said as he stepped onto the ruined deck of Krieg’s ship. “Even the greatest swordsmen won’t fight me because they can estimate their power and compare it to me. Your strong will that wants to challenge me comes from your brave heart… or from your foolishness.”

I thought about trying to stop this suicidal fight of Zoro’s but something held me back. I wasn’t quite sure why. Maybe it was shock that someone would go up against this man willingly. But I could only stand there, practically gaping, as the scene unfolded in front of me.

“It is my dream,” Zoro said putting the white handled sword in between his teeth. “And my promise to my best friend.”

“His… dream?” I echoed.

“Some people don’t hold back,” Zeff commented. I turned but Zeff wasn’t looking at me, despite the fact I knew his comment was directed at me. “Some people go after their dream no matter what.”

I frowned. It was an old argument. One we’d had countless times before. “And some people have other obligations,” I said turning back to the scene of the two swordsmen standing on the half-sunken deck.


	5. Power

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Despite checking several sources the actual translation of Zoro's attacks to English have always given me problems. I check the wiki on it and someone still says that they're wrong. Later on in the series I just start using the Japanese version to eliminate this problem but I haven't gone back and fixed all the other times I tried to translate. Just know that if you read this and go.. hey that's not what that's called... it probably is called that in some other official translation somewhere and that's where I got it.

You could cut the tension with even the dullest kitchen knife as the two swordsmen faced each other. I was barely resisting the urge to tap my foot against the deck with nervousness. I did not like this ‘challenge the master swordsman’ idea at all. In fact, I was still pretty damn sure it was suicidal. “I never thought that I would find you so soon,” Zoro said his words remarkably clear despite the sword between his teeth.

“That does not make you any better,” Mihawk replied with his arms still folded across his chest.

“The greatest swordsman and the pirate hunter?” Patty muttered as he stared out at the impending fight with wide eyes.

“No one can defeat our sempai,” one of the two men (I still didn’t know which was which) that Luffy was apparently friends with said confidentially.

Mihawk reached up to his cross necklace and pulled the bottom off to reveal a small blade inside. “Hey what do you think you’re doing?” Zoro asked.

“I am not such a stupid person to use all of what I have to hunt a rabbit,” he said holding the pocketknife-sized blade in front of him. “I know that there are many people in this world who want to become famous. This place is East Blue, the weakest of all that are separated by the Grand Line and the Red Line.”

I couldn’t help but nod a bit in agreement. Having come from the North Blue, I’d seen a lot more dangerous pirates that were still considered rookies in their sea. That was part of the reason Zeff had decided to sail the Baratie in the East Blue. Not as many dangers.

“Unfortunately, I don’t carry a knife smaller than this one,” Mihawk added holding up his tiny blade.

“Watch your words, man…” Zoro growled. He suddenly burst into a charge. I was a bit surprised at how fast he was, to be honest. “Otherwise, you’ll regret it when you die!” he shouted as he barreled forward.

Mihawk didn’t look particularly disturbed though. “You are just a person who has never seen the real world,” he said calmly.

Zoro crossed his arms and ducked his head in preparation of a strike. “Killer Sword!” he yelled as he threw his arms out towards Mihawk.

His attack never even came close to landing though. Mihawk had thrust that tiny blade and pinned all three swords together at one spot. I gave a start of surprise. The physics just didn’t make any sense. How on Earth could that tiny blade stop not only one but three full sized katanas?! “Zoro!” Luffy shouted in just as much surprise as I had.

“He can stop Zoro-sempai! Even the greatest technique?” Yosaku and Johnny shouted in horror.

Time seemed to freeze as the three swords were blocked by the point of Mihawk’s blade. Suddenly, Zoro gave a huge scream and started swinging his swords around so fast that I almost couldn’t see them move. “H-he’s…” I broke off. I wasn’t actually sure what he was other than pissed. He was fast, but that seemed like child’s play compared to how fast Mihawk was. He was incredibly skilled but again, Mihawk was better. Every swing was easily blocked by the darker man. For the first time I could remember, I wasn’t sure if I could have beaten Zoro, especially with how pissed off he was. Which meant that there was no way in hell I’d be able to fight Mihawk should he turn his attention to the Baratie.

Suddenly, Zoro flew backwards with a grunt of pain. “Zoro! Be careful!” I shouted gripping the railing of the Baratie with nervousness. I really really didn’t want to see him get hurt.

“Stop joking around, sempai!!” Johnny –or Yosaku- yelled. “Pull yourself together and get serious!”

Zoro was instantly on the attack again. Swinging his blades around to try and get anywhere near Mihawk. But the other man kept blocking him. “He uses that small knife to counter all of Roronoa Zoro’s attacks!” one of Krieg’s pirates shouted in shock. Because we _clearly_ hadn’t noticed that already!

“I practice to win!” Zoro shouted as he continued to fight as hard as he could. “I’ve practiced hard to defeat this man!”

For once Mihawk seemed slightly curious. “What is your duty? And what do you want from the ultimate power, you weakling?” he asked.

Instantly, Johnny and Yosaku tried to jump the rail of their ship. “You called our sempai a weakling? Stupid! We have to teach you a lesson!”

Luffy instantly grabbed hold of their coats and pulled them back. “Stop! Don’t get involved! Yosaku! Johnny!” he said nearly crushing their heads against the railing. “We have to be patient!”

Zoro was tossed back again and I almost winced at the grunt of pain. He quickly got to his feet and put both of the swords in his hand to cross the one in his mouth. “Lion…” I tensed a bit as he rushed forward again. “Killing sword!!” he finished as he brought the blades down.

I gasped in horror as I saw the dark red spurt of blood come from his chest. “ **Sempai**!!” His two friends shouted. Slowly, he lowered his arms a bit more and I raised my hand to cover my shocked open mouth. Why had he kept fighting when he was so clearly outmatched?! It didn’t make any sense!

“Do you want this knife to go through your heart?” Mihawk asked after a minute of frozen stillness. “Why aren’t you stepping back?”

“I… I don’t know,” Zoro admitted in a strained voice. “However, if I take a single step back… I’d feel that I had broken my promise and I will not be able to stand here again.”

“Right,” Mihawk said. “And that is called: ‘losing’.”

Zoro laughed a bit. “That’s why I can’t step back.”

“Even if it means you will lose your life?” Mihawk asked.

“If I have to lose, I’d rather die!” he declared loudly.

I shook my head slightly. “Still don’t get it?” Zeff asked in a low voice. “You really are a stupid little eggplant. To people like him, their dreams are the only things worth having. I really admire those kind of people.” That sent my mind reeling in even more confusion. These people were throwing me for a complete loop.

“Tell me your name, kid!” Mihawk said pulling his knife from Zoro’s chest.

“Roronoa Zoro,” he said holding his swords out so that they formed a vague pinwheel pattern with the other blade in his mouth.

Mihawk reached up over his shoulder. “I’ll remember that. I haven’t met someone with such a strong will like you for a long time,” he said pulled the long black blade from his back. “And to repay that, I will use the ‘Black Sword’, the strongest sword in this world to end your life.”

“He’s using that sword!” Krieg’s pirates shouted in fright. “The sword that cut our ship to pieces!”

I looked on in horror. That thing would cut Zoro easier than butter. Why did he have to go and get himself killed for something stupid like not losing?! Mihawk made his first outright attack and brought his sword back to swing. “Die!”

“Please stop, sempai!” his friends screamed.

Zoro started spinning the blades in his hands until they became blurred with how fast they were spinning. My eyes widened in shock. Zoro was insane. Both in skill and mental capacity. “The secret technique of the three swords style!” he said as the wind from his swords started to create a mini-whirlwind. “Tri Elements Sword!” he said rushing the few feet between them.

There was a spurt of blood and two of Zoro’s swords shattered like they were made of glass. I clamped my hand over my open mouth tighter. This fight was entirely too brutal and unnecessary. What was he proving by dying? Zoro removed his last sword from his mouth and sheathed it before standing up and spreading his arms wide.

Even Mihawk looked a bit shocked at the action. “What are you doing?”

Zoro just grinned through the blood coating his chin. “It’s shameful…for a swordsman to be hit from behind,” he said simply.

“Splendid!” Mihawk said before swinging his sword across Zoro’s chest. A huge spurt of blood erupted from Zoro’s shoulder to hip.

“ **Zoro**!!!” Luffy screamed. Followed immediately by Usopp and the other two.

I was too shocked to scream. All I could do was stand there and stare as Zoro fell backwards. I had a very sudden urge to cling to Zeff like I had when I was eleven but on the other hand I didn’t think that I could move to do it.

“Is this the true power of the Grand Line?!” Krieg’s pirates shouted in just as much shock. “Even Zoro, the pirate hunter, can’t compare to him.”

I gripped the railing tighter as Zoro seemed to fall in slow motion. What was it he had said? That he left his life behind when he’d decided to become an invincible swordsman? What utter bullshit! How exactly is he going to do that if he dies!? “Zoro! It’s too easy to give up your dream this way!!” I shouted, finally breaking out of my shocked state.

Zoro splashed into the water. The force of Mihawk’s slice having sent him careening off the edge of the deck. “Damn!” Luffy shouted as Johnny and Yosaku jumped into the water after Zoro. “ **Damn you**!!!” he shouted throwing a punch at Mihawk.

It was credit to my still shocked brain that it took me a minute to register the fact that his arm stretched across the ocean to grab onto a rail that was behind Mihawk. When it did though, I stumbled back in shock. “ **What the hell**!?”

“What’s that?!” the other chefs cried in just as much shock.

Luffy screamed as he pulled his other arm back for a punch as he sped across the water towards Mihawk. Mihawk didn’t seem as disturbed by Luffy’s stretching appendage as the rest of us though. “You are that swordsman’s friend? You want to fight too?” he asked as he shifted his weight a bit. “That’s good, so you will learn a lesson with your own eyes.”

Mihawk stepped to the side and Luffy slammed into the wood that was behind him. His head was stuck in the wall and as he pulled to get it out his neck stretched. “W-what is going on…” I asked in a tiny voice. I don’t think my brain can take all this because my nice normal reality had just completely snapped.

Finally Luffy’s head popped out of the wood and he tumbled backwards. “Don’t worry,” Mihawk said before Luffy could move. “That kid is still alive.”

My head swung around and saw Johnny and Yosaku hauling Zoro out of the water. “Sempai! Can you hear us, sempai?”

“Zoro!” Luffy called uncertainly. Zoro coughed a fair amount of blood. And Luffy called him again.

“Get him into the boat,” Johnny and Yosaku said to Usopp as they tried to get the swordsman out of the water so that his wounds wouldn’t continue to bleed out into the water.

“I am Dracule Mihawk. It’s too soon for you to die,” Mihawk said as Usopp and the other two rushed to try and stop the bleeding. “You have to learn more about the world, and discover your true self. You have to become stronger, Roronoa Zoro. No matter how long it will take, I will always be the Greatest Swordsman in the world and will be waiting for you! You have to practice both your skill and your heart to become stronger. Dare to challenge me again, Roronoa Zoro!”

“Sempai, say something!” the one I thought might be Johnny begged.

“I can’t believe that Hawk Eyes Mihawk said something like that to the kid,” Zeff said simply.

I nodded a bit in agreement. No matter how absolutely stupid Zoro had been it seemed as if he’d earned himself more than a little respect. “I don’t get guys. I really don’t.”

Mihawk suddenly turned to Luffy. “Kid, what is your goal?”

“To become the Pirate King,” he answered instantly.

“What a stupid dream. It means that you have to become stronger than me, you know?” he asked with a slightly amused smirk.

Luffy stuck his tongue out at the swordsman. “I don’t care. I will become the greatest pirate. Just watch!” Suddenly he turned to face the other ship. “Usopp! Is Zoro alright?”

“He’s not dead, but he’s unconscious!” Usopp shouted back without daring to look up from his work. The other two didn’t seem to be much help as they were blubbering in the background. Suddenly Zoro moved, raising his sword straight into the air. So much for unconscious.

“Zoro?” Luffy asked in shock.

“H-how can he even be awake?” I asked in awe.

“Lu-Luffy. C-can you hear me?” Zoro called weakly.

“Yes,” Luffy said getting to his feet.

“I’m sorry for making you worry about me,” he said. “If I…can’t become an invincible swordsman, you will be worried about me right?” he asked before letting out a cry of pain and spitting up blood.

“Don’t say anything now, sempai!” his friends cried instantly.

Zoro just ignored them and once he caught his breath he continued. “From now on…I won’t lose to anyone ever again!! Until I can defeat that man and become an invincible swordsman! I won’t lose again! **Forever**!!” he swore. “Do you have any problems, Pirate King?”

Luffy laughed a bit, grinning widely. “Nope!”

I blinked in surprise. These two…they were just unreal. It was like some of the pirates I remembered from North Blue. These two didn’t have the skill yet but damn it if they didn’t have the determination to get it. I was actually beginning to believe that they had a chance in the Grand Line.

Mihawk smirked a bit. “You are a very good team. I hope that I will see you again,” he said before turning to his little one-man boat.

“Hey! Hawk Eyes!” I turned my head a bit and saw Don Krieg standing there with a bit of a grin on his face. “Don’t you want my head now? The head of Don Krieg, the greatest pirate of the East Blue?”

I frowned. “To quote Zeff from literally every morning I’m getting ready: ‘it’s not about you’,” I muttered. I heard a slight chuckle from behind me but it went unheard by most of the others.

“I’ve thought of that,” Mihawk said turning slightly to look at the other pirate. “But I’ve had enough fun for today. I will go back to sleep now,” he finished.

“Why are you saying something so mean?” Don Krieg asked. “Even though you have had enough fun, I have not,” he declared.

“Captain Krieg?” his crew whimpered. “Why are you stopping that man from going back?”

“Before you go back, die!!” Krieg said shooting his hidden guns at the master swordsman.

“Fool… haven’t you learned your lesson?” Mihawk asked as he sliced downwards with his black sword. “Goodbye!” The entire wooden deck burst apart in a rain of splinters and dust. People went flying as the sea was churned up again from the force of the sword strike.

“He… escaped,” Krieg said sounding annoyed.

Luffy suddenly slammed against the railing of the Baratie and clung to it tightly. He turned slightly to the small ship a little ways off. “Usopp! Why don’t all of you go now?” he called.

“Roger!” Usopp called back as the other two continued to try to patch up Zoro. “Zoro and I will bring back Nami for sure. You have to make that Chef join us!” I frowned a bit. Were they still on that? “After we get five members, we will go to the Grand Line!” he finished as he threw Luffy’s straw hat.

“Okay!” Luffy agreed catching the hat easily. “Let’s do it!”

I took a slow inhale from my cigarette as I saw all of Krieg’s crewmembers starting to gather. “Here they come,” I said nodding to the group of them. “A few decent faces but their personalities suck.”

“Mister. If I can chase those people away, I don’t have to work here anymore, okay?” Luffy said looking over his shoulder at the approaching pirates.

“Do whatever you want to do,” Zeff replied nonchalantly.

I exhaled a stream of smoke in a sigh. “Good thing I went with pants,” I muttered taking in the pure number of them. There were a hundred plus Krieg and while yes we did have a number of chefs not too many of them were much better than a few bar brawlers.


	6. Pearl

I could see Krieg and his crew talking about something but I was too far away to make out any of the words. Suddenly, there was a gunshot that made me jump slightly. One of Krieg’s crewmembers went tumbling back into the ocean with a cry of pain. “Are you afraid of him that much?” Krieg shouted angrily.

“N-No sir!” several of the surviving crew said instantly.

“You think that a normal human being can cut that giant ship into pieces?” Krieg demanded. “It means that it’s a power of the Devil Fruit!!” Krieg shouted at the top of his lungs. “According to legend, there are some people who have eaten a ‘Devil Fruit’, and those people are in the Grand Line! When that man cut our ship, he must have used some kind of strange power. So, in the Grand Line, he is just a simple pirate.”

I somehow doubted that. The look in Mihawk’s eyes when he was fighting Zoro -that wasn’t the look of an ordinary pirate. But the ‘strange power’ talk had peaked my interest. I glanced over at Luffy. Stretching your arm across several hundred yards would –in my mind- classify as a strange power.

Suddenly, there was cheering coming from Krieg’s crew. “Let’s go and take that ship!” Krieg shouted. All of his crew came surging forward, weapons drawn and a determined look in their eyes.

“Wow!” Luffy said, mouth dropping open far past what was natural. “Here they come. This is so exciting!” he turned to look at Zeff. “Hey, Mister! So is that a deal?” he asked.

“It’s a very good deal,” Zeff agreed. "Because if you stay here for one year, you would destroy my restaurant.”

I looked around and noticed that Patty and Carne weren’t out on the deck with the rest of us. That wasn’t much like them. Of all the people to run away they weren’t who I’d have picked. “Where’s Patty and Carne?” I turned asking one of the other chefs.

“They are preparing to fight,” he said with a smile. “You can count on them this time, Sonya.”

I turned back to look at the group of pirates making their way through the wreckage of their ship. “In this situation, we should pull up the front porch,” I said flicking my spent cigarette into the ocean.

“But that will give the enemies more space to stand!” The chef protested.

I smiled a bit as I lit another cigarette. “That’s alright, love. Just pull it up for me will ya?”

The chef snapped to attention. “I will do that now!”

“Ready, Zeff?” I asked looking over at the old man. “Or do you need to rest before we start?”

He glanced at me, “You say something, little shit?”

I scowled a bit at the nickname. “Yeah, I asked if you were feeling your age, tired old geezer,” I replied. “Get a hearing aide or something.”

“Give that ship to us, you weakling chefs!” The pirates yelled as they brandished their swords.

“I’m gonna go now,” Luffy said as he walked back into the restaurant and let his arms stretch backwards. “Rubber…” Suddenly, he jumped up from the ground and shot forward. “Rocket!” He let go of the railing and went flying across the water.

“AH! That kid is flying here!” one of Krieg’s pirates yelled.

Luffy twisted in mid air. “And my…” He stretched his arms wide. “Giant Rubber Staff!” he shouted as his stretched arms cloths-lined a number of the pirates. The pirates went flying back and landed in the sea while Luffy grabbed onto the crooked mast of Krieg’s ship to stop himself.

“That kid’s not bad!” several of the chefs’ shouted.

I had to consciously close my mouth. “Are… there many people like that in the Grand Line?” I wondered aloud. It didn’t seem possible that there were other people with insane powers out there. Just Luffy was a bit freaky.

“I will beat you up, you ungrateful person!” Luffy said facing Don Krieg.

Suddenly, I heard a familiar sound and turned to the front of the Baratie. So that was what ‘getting ready’ had meant. “This is the ultimate weapon of the Baratie!” Patty screamed. “The Tiny Fish No. One!!”

“Get out of here if you don’t want to die!” Carne shouted.

The sound of moving gears and mechanical parts filled the air as the fish head of the Baratie started to move. “That’s so cool!” Luffy shouted in amazement.

“The ship’s stem is moving,” one of Krieg’s pirates stated.

“What the hell?” another asked as the tiny ship separated from the main part of the Baratie.

Even from where I was standing I could hear Patty and Carne bickering. “Hey! Why don’t you paddle harder?”

“I am! How about you?”

“I am already!”

“If you can’t paddle faster than me, this thing will not turn left and head towards the enemies!”

“I know! Just shut up, you moron!”

Finally, the two of them managed to get the Tiny Fish turned so that the three cannons in its mouth were pointing at the attacking pirates. “Full Power! Speed up!” Patty and Carne yelled. Suddenly the Tiny Fish zipped forward.

“It’s coming here!” one of Krieg’s men yelled.

The cannons of the Tiny Fish fired, destroying one of the floating pieces of ship and sending pirates flying through the air. “I’m pulling up the front porch!” The chef from before shouted up to me.

“Good,” I said before turning to the pirates that were still around the front of the Baratie. “You want to fight, don’t you? I’ll give you the opportunity now.” Several of the pirates screamed as the thick wooden porch rose out of the water and clicked into place on either side of the Baratie.

“That’s so wonderful!!” Luffy shouted with a huge grin. I smiled a bit at his reaction. He really was a cute kid.

“I see. You don’t want us to fight in the restaurant because you are afraid that it will be destroyed. That’s good because when we get that ship it will be in perfect condition,” Krieg said thoughtfully. “That ship is worth more than I think!”

The chefs spread out a bit more over the extended porch. “Chefs can’t fight us pirates!” the pirates said as they climbed up onto the porch.

“Don’t you underestimate the chefs of the sea!”

Patty cheered from the Tiny Fish as the chefs rushed to meet the pirates. “Show them the true power of chefs!”

“Hey, Patty! Don’t pat attention to those people. Let’s take care of that man now!” Carne said as they paddled the Tiny Fish faster. The fish rushed forward. “Krieg! Prepare to die!”

“This is the power of the weapon of the Baratie!” Patty shouted as the cannon went off aimed directly at Krieg. There was a huge explosion as the cannon ball hit. “Just become fish food!”

When the smoke cleared, Don Krieg was standing there holding the cannons of the Little Fish and preventing it from moving forward. “Eh? Why is the ship not moving?” Patty asked, not being able to see Krieg over the Little Fish.

“I am Don Krieg, The future ruler of the seas,” Krieg said in a deadly low tone.

“That has to be me!” Luffy snapped from his spot on the mast.

“I don’t have time to play with you!” Krieg shouted as he used his grip on the cannon to heave the ship out of the water. I felt my eyes widen a bit. The Tiny Fish wasn’t the lightest of things in the world and he lifted it with one arm.

“What the? He can lift this boat by himself?!” Patty screamed as was lifted into the air.

I sighed, sending a stream of smoke into the air. So much for Patty and Carne’s efforts. “I suppose I shouldn’t have expected anything else…” I muttered as the Tiny Fish sailed through the air towards the Baratie. The chefs screamed as the Tiny Fish started coming down to smash into the Baratie’s main building. ‘ _Wonderful,’_ I thought as the ship got closer.

I took a running leap from the railing and turned in mid air to slam my left heel into the side of the ship. The Tiny Fish careened to one side and missed the Baratie but landed on the edge of the porch instead. Luckily, I wasn’t worried about the porch. “Sonya!!” I heard as I landed on the porch in a crouch.

The Tiny Fish landed off to one side and I straightened. “What a powerful kick…” Krieg’s pirates muttered staring at me. “She can… kick that weird boat away?”

“So cool!!” Luffy shouted.

I smiled a bit and sent him a wink. “Twern’t nothin’.”

Suddenly, Patty and Carne jumped up onto the deck from the wreckage. “Sonya, you moron!! You want to kill us?!”

“Would you have rather I gotten crushed instead?” I asked innocently. “I was just defending myself.”

“Stop pissing me off!!” Patty snapped.

“You almost destroyed the important force of the Baratie!!” Carne added pointing at me accusingly.

I shrugged a bit. “Sorry.”

“What important force?” someone asked as a chef hit the ground hard. “No matter what weapon you use a chef is still a chef! You’d better stay in the kitchen and cook!” I turned and saw Krieg’s pirates sitting in the midst of injured chefs. “Don’t compare us with those typical pirates because we are Krieg’s Pirates.”

“The greatest pirate of the East Blue!” another added proudly.

A few of the chefs started pushing themselves up from where they had landed. “They are good…different from those pirates that used to attack us,” one of them said wiping away the blood from his split lip.

“Why are you giving up so easy?” Patty demanded.

“Right!” Carne agreed. “We are the chef fighters!!”

Krieg’s pirates didn’t seem particularly worried though. “Chef fighters? So what? Our _job_ is fighting,” one of them pointed out. “Just give up and give the ship to us!” another ordered.

“I’ve been a chef for ten years and worked for more than three hundred restaurants,” Patty stated. “I always cause trouble, so no one hired me anymore.”

“Until we found this restaurant,” Carne finished. “I love this place because I can bother fight and cook at the same time.”

Patty and Carne tightened their grips on their weapons and started to swing them towards the pirates. “There is no restaurant as wonderful as this place!!” Patty declared.

“No matter what, we won’t give up our restaurant to pirates!!” Carne shouted as he swung his knife around.

Patty and Carne’s weapons quickly dispatched the pirates. Other than me and Zeff they were the strongest fighters here. The pirates hit the ground with grunts of pain and spurts of blood from wounds. “What the hell are they?!” a few of the still conscious pirates demanded in shock even as their crewmates failed to even touch the two chefs.

“This is the true power of a chef!!”

Just then, someone climbed out of the water, sloshing it all over the deck as he heaved himself up to stand on the porch. I raised an eyebrow at the man. He had a large shiny…orb on his head like a hat and huge plates of gold with more orbs on them all over his body. “What are you doing?” he asked.

Patty and Carne turned in surprise. “Who is that?”

Suddenly, they went flying backwards. “Hahahaha! What weaklings!” The strange man said holding up one arm with a shield-like device on it. In fact, his whole body seemed to be covered in shields of varying sizes.

“Pearl!” The Pirates said happily.

“Patty! Carne! Are you still alive?” a chef asked to the sprawled out chefs.

“Hahahah! Even if they are still alive, they are in serious condition because of my killer punch. This punch is Pearl’s present for you,” he said spreading his arms wide of his rather large and flat body.

‘ _What an absolute weirdo…’_ I thought as the man laughed again. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a pirate crouching down next to Patty. “Look! This idiot has a very cool knife. Ha ha! I’ll take it. It’s better than my sword!”

I started walking over even as Patty grabbed the knife. “Let go of the knife!” The pirate snapped. “You won’t have a chance to use it anyway!”

“Sweetie… that doesn’t belong to you,” I said drawing attention to myself. The pirate looked up just in time to get my steel heel against his jaw. It probably broke as he went flying backwards. The pirate crashed into three others and slammed into the shield on the front of that Pearl guy.

The knife spun in the air and as it began to fall I caught it with practiced ease. “What…was that?” The pirate I had kicked managed to ask through his broken jaw and missing teeth. The four pirates fell into a heap at Pearl’s feet as I exhaled some smoke and held my cigarette at my side.

“No matter how many times she does it…Sonya’s kick is still awesome…” One of the chefs said with wide eyes.

I turned cold eyes to the heap of pirates. “Listen up, a knife is the soul of a chef. No worthless assholes like you are allowed to touch it.”

“Sonya…” I turned to look at Patty. He was a bit of a mess. That Pearl guy and apparently broken his nose because it was streaming blood.

I crouched down next to him and patted his head a little. “I’ll take care of these pirates, Patty dear.” I held out his knife and he took it with trembling hands. “You just lay here and rest, kay?”

“Take care of us?! Don’t make me laugh! We will finish you like we did with that stupid chef! Don’t think you’re safe cause you’re a girl!” The Pirates charged forward as I straightened.

I leapt forward and landed on my hands in the middle of them. I swung around, letting my legs fly out and slam into the pirates that were all around me. I was infinitely glad I chose to change earlier. I wouldn’t have done this move in a skirt, no matter if there were shorts under them. My feet collided with pirates’ faces and stomachs and sent them flying back as I pushed off my hands and went into a handspring. I landed a foot or so away in a crouch and one leg out to the side to keep my balance.

I straightened and turned to look at the unconscious pirates. “Stupid chef? How dare you insult a chef like that. You’re all clearly suicidal.”

Pearl sighed heavily. “You were all defeated by that girl’s kick? You really are worthless.” He turned to me. “Hey! You only know how to kick, right?”

“Of course not. I can flambé, slice, dice, and all sorts of things…but why waste that kind of effort on trash like you?” I asked with a smirk. My smirk faded a bit as I turned serious. “I’m a chef. And our hands are our lives. I won’t risk them in a pointless fight. I can take care of you with my kicks alone.”

“You defeat me?” Peal repeated. “Stop dreaming. I’ve been through sixty-one fights and my enemies are all dead. I always win without a wound, so people call me ‘The Iron Wall’ you take care of your hands, but I take care of my whole body. Since my first fight, I’ve never lost blood. Do you understand? Not even a tiny drop of blood,” he said smirking widely.

Pearl banged the shields on his fists together. “And that means I am a very strong person. I am Pearl, the Iron Wall of Krieg’s Pirates. See? My facial skin is so clear! I love myself!”

I twitched a bit. “Okay… Even I’m not so vain to talk like that in the middle of a fight…” I muttered. “Besides, clear skin isn’t everything. Your ears are big, your eyes dull and you need to lay off the hair gel something serious, you’ll kill it that way.”

Pearl looked horrified. “You horrible girl! You have big feet and a weird eyebrow!”

Okay, that hit a nerve. It wasn’t my fault my eyebrow curled like that. It just grew that way! “Just shut up!” I yelled. “How dare you make fun of my eyebrow! Try defeating _me_ without a wound!” I spun around and threw my leg out.

There was a resounding gong-like sound as my metal heel slammed into the shield on Pearl’s elbow. “This armor can even withstand a bullet!” he said. “No matter how you attack, you won’t hurt me.”

Suddenly, Luffy slammed into the back of Pearl’s head, slamming it against the back of his own shield. I felt the thud through my leg since my foot was still against the front of the shield. It must have hurt. I lowered my leg as Luffy straightened and brushed himself off. “That was really scary. I am so lucky that I didn’t fall into the sea.”

Pearl slowly moved his hand and put it to his face. When he pulled it away there was blood on his fingers from the small stream coming from his nose. “…huh?”

The Krieg pirates freaked out. “He’s bleeding?! We’re in trouble now!!” I raised my eyebrow; it was just a nosebleed.


	7. Blood

“…blood!” Pearl said staring at his hand with wide eyes.

“It’s alright, Pearl!” the Krieg pirates screamed. “Just a little nosebleed, it’s not a wound from fighting!” another said quickly. “Please calm down, Pearl!”

I tilted my head a bit in confusion. “What’s the big deal?” I muttered as the chefs behind me asked the same general question. I’d gotten worse injuries from a potato peeler.

“My Iron Wall has been destroyed. They are dangerous!!” Pearl said as he began to sweat and tremble.

I paused with my cigarette halfway to my mouth. He really was freaking the hell out over this nosebleed thing. “How can you be a pirate if you’re afraid of a little blood?” I asked taking in the way his pupils had gone tiny with absolute fear.

“His nose is just bleeding…” Luffy stated sticking his finger up his own nose to illustrate the point. Or, at least that’s why I hoped he stuck his finger up his nose. It was gross enough to jab your finger up your nose as it was.

Suddenly, Pearl started banging the two shields on his hands together; causing tiny sparks as the two pearly orbs slammed into one another. “Calm down, Pearl!” Krieg ordered from his own wreaked ship. “It’s just a nosebleed. Don’t get confused! This place is not a jungle!”

“What is he doing?” The chefs continued to wonder.

“Danger! I am in **danger**!!” Pearl shouted as he slammed the two shields together harder and faster than before.

“Pull yourself together, Pearl!” the pirates begged frantically.

Okay, now I was getting a bit concerned. Those sparks were really starting to worry me, as were the terrified looks on the faces of the Krieg pirates. Why were they scared of their own crewman? “ **I am in danger!!!”** Pearl shouted as the sparks lit all of his shields on fire and turned him into a giant ball of flames.

“Fire!?” How the hell had the damn things caught fire!?

“Damn it! He’s thinking about when he used to be in the jungle.” Krieg’s pirates took several steps back with a worried look on their faces. “Pearl was born in the jungle with many wild animals. Anytime he feels that he is in danger he will start a fire!”

“What?! He uses fire to chase animals away!?”

“Don’t even get close to me!!” Pearl shouted as he held up his hands revealing tiny balls in between his fingers. “Ultimate ball of fire!!” he shrieked as he threw the balls, which ignited instantly as they flew through the fire that was wrapped around his body.

I quickly sprung to the side to avoid the tiny fireballs. From a few feet away I heard Luffy yelling a bit about the fire that he also had to avoid. Several of the pirates were lit on fire as they begged Pearl to stop. Well, I guess that explained why they were afraid of their own crewmate if he did things like that. I landed in a relatively clear patch of deck as several nearby pieces went up in flames.

“He’s thinking of burning our restaurant?!”

“Everything must be burnt down!!” Pearl shouted. “This fire armor is even greater than my normal Iron Wall!”

I straightened a bit as Luffy ran around in circles behind me trying to pat out the flames that had lit the seat of his pants on fire. “Hey, moron!” I snapped. “If you burn down the ship we’ll be stuck in the middle of the open ocean! _That’s danger!_ We’ll all drown!” Of course Pearl just ignored me and that tiny speck of common sense and went on burning the deck.

Half of the deck was now burning around Pearl. “Damn it! We’re stuck between fire and sea! There’s nowhere for us to escape!” the pirates shouted frantically. “This is too hot! I can’t stand it anymore!!” Krieg’s pirates started diving into the ocean, most of them with some part of their clothing on fire. “Let’s jump into the sea!!”

“You can’t get close to me!” Pearl screamed as he waved his arms around frantically.

‘ _Oh no?_ ’ I thought as I rushed forward.

“What are you doing, Sonya?!” Patty screamed behind me as I dodged patches of fire.

There was a complete ring of fire around Pearl so I was forced to jump as high as I could to get clear of it. “You don’t have the right to burn other people’s restaurants!” I said as I flipped over a few times to increase the force of my kick. I threw all of my momentum behind my right leg as I came down against Pearl.

A resounding clang sounded as my boot met Pearl’s flaming shield. I kicked off a bit from the shield so that I flipped back a few feet away from Pearl. “Why is she risking her life?!” I heard someone yell over the roar of fire. “Does she want to get burned?!” another voice asked.

I took a casual inhale from my cigarette. “What is this? You dare come close to the fire?!” Pearl asked angrily.

I exhaled a long stream of smoke before smiling a bit. “What kind of chef is afraid of a little fire? I’ve gotten worse burns from toasters.” Well, that wasn’t entirely true. I wasn’t stupid enough to burn myself on a toaster.

“Damn you!” Pearl shouted pulling his right arm back. “Just shut up!!”

I threw myself forward and onto my hands. Pearl’s punch went clear over me as I launched my legs upwards in a cartwheel and slammed my heel into Pearl’s exposed face. Pearl went flying backwards as Krieg’s pirates shouted in shock. I easily brought my legs under myself again to crouch down as Pearl slid a ways on the deck.

“What is that chef!?” someone screamed and I couldn’t help but smirk a bit. That’s what they get for underestimating me. “This is getting worse!”

Pearl got up, a hand to his face while his nose-streamed blood and tears rimmed his eyes. “Ouch! Y-you! Danger!! She is a dangerous person!!” he shouted as he fully straightened. “I have to create more fireballs!!” he declared as he flung more of the tiny marbles outwards.

“Ah!! He’s thinking of burning the restaurant? If those fireballs get into the kitchen it could explode!” a chef pointed out frantically. I glanced over my shoulder. I wasn’t anywhere near close enough to stop them. But Zeff was right between them and the Baratie’s front door. I relaxed when I realized that little fact. “Zeff! Watch out!”

I smirked a bit. They really didn’t get it, even after all these years of working with the man; they should realize that he wasn’t helpless. Zeff lifted his peg leg and swung around. The wind of his leg cutting through the air blew out the flames and the tiny marbles fell to the ground harmlessly. “Even though I only have one leg left, those stupid fireballs couldn’t do anything to me.”

“Boss, you’re so cool!” a chef shouted from the sidelines.

“He used his kick to create the wind and blow the fire away!” another said in awe.

The pirates were also awed, but in a much less favorable way. “Red Leg Zeff can still use his techniques?!”

“Wow!” Luffy exclaimed with wide eyes.

I gave Zeff a smile, which he steadfastly ignored. “-I’ll have to finish him and the front porch!!” I turned just in time to see a huge spiked ball coming down towards me.

My eyes got wide as I realized it was coming down way too fast for me to get out of it’s path. It was going to slam right into that Pearl idiot and me. “Sonya! Watch out!!” Suddenly, I heard a scream of ‘ **hot**!’ next to me. I glanced over to see Luffy jumping _through_ the fire.

He pulled both arms back. “Rubber…” He was right between me and the spiked ball as he threw both fists forward. “ **Bazooka**!!” The ball went flying back the way it came, which I now noticed was Krieg. Luffy instantly turned his attention to his pants, which had again caught fire. “Ouch! **Hot**! **Hot**!”

I helped him pat the flames out as I heard a crash. I looked up to see the mast of Krieg’s ship starting to fall. Right towards us. “Shit!” I took a dive off to the side, as did Luffy. But Pearl apparently didn’t realize the mast was falling and didn’t move. The huge wooden pole slammed into him, breaking in half across his head.

“Pearl!” the pirates shouted as Pearl collapsed against the broken mast, blissfully unconscious and no longer on fire.

“What’s wrong with him?” Luffy asked curiously.

I exhaled a stream of smoke. “He’s a weirdo,” I supplied. I was sure there were lots of fancy names for just what was wrong with him but I didn’t know them nor did I really care what they were.

“What an idiot!” Krieg muttered. “It seems that I am on my own now.”

Suddenly, there was a cry from behind me. “That’s enough, Sonya-chan!” I turned instantly at Gin’s voice. Gin had Zeff on the ground with a double-barreled pistol pointed at his head and Zeff’s peg leg broken off in his free hand. “I don’t want to kill you.”

My eyes widened a bit. “Gin…you..!”

“Even though he used to be a famous pirate, now he’s just a simple chef!” Gin said resting his foot against Zeff’s back. “I can kill him anytime.”

“That man broke his artificial wooden leg!” Patty growled.

“Damn! Boss!!” Carne cried.

Luffy made a move to head over to where Gin was. “I will beat him up!!”

I put a hand on his shoulder. “Wait! Let’s listen to him first.”

“Do you want to spare this man’s life?” Gin asked eyes focused on me. “Then, Sonya, leave this ship.”

“Leave this ship?” I echoed incredulously. He _must_ be joking. “Sure, and why don’t you just go straight to hell?”

“Sonya!!” The chef’s wailed. “Don’t tease him or he will kill Zeff!”

I glanced down at Zeff. “Why are you so worried, shitty geezer?” I asked. “You don’t have any right to order the other chef’s anymore.”

“Shut up, stupid eggplant!” Zeff snapped back. “You don’t have the right to talk to me that way!”

“Stop calling me that!!” I shouted.

“Damn! Is Sonya thinking of using this opportunity to get rid of Zeff?” the chefs asked each other. I felt my eyebrow twitch in annoyance. Were they still on that stupid theory? I would have thought they’d know me better by now. Even if I wanted Zeff dead, I would do it myself. Not use someone like Gin to do my dirty work.

I took a deep breath to control my temper. “Gin, if you want someone to point that toy at, point your gun at me instead!” There was a collective gasp that I found more than a bit annoying. Gin’s eyes widened at me, probably from the deadly serious look that I had on.

“What are you thinking? You’ll get killed!” Luffy protested.

“Thanks for the concern, Sweetie Pie. But that’s alright,” I said not taking my eyes off of Gin.

There was another gasp. “What the hell did she say?” the chefs asked. “Sonya!”

“Sonya-chan…why?” Gin asked in a soft voice.

Before I could answer I heard the clanks of Pearl’s armor. “If you want to die that much…” I turned around to see the pirate getting to his feet. “I will help you! You made my nose bleed twice in one fight. That’s not just luck; you are too dangerous! If you don’t want that old man to die, then don’t move!”

He dashed forward, arm pulled back. My first instinct was to, of course, dodge. But his threat to kill Zeff held me in place. “The Ultimate Killing Technique!” he shouted as the shield slammed against my cheek. _Hard_.

Blood filled my mouth as I slammed against the deck and slid on my neck and shoulders across the wood. My back crashed painfully against the railing of the Baratie and I couldn’t manage to stifle the cry of pain. “Sonya!!”

“That suits you best because you destroyed my Iron Wall!” Pearl said as I collapsed to the ground.

“You..!”

“Don’t!” I shouted to Luffy. “Don’t get involved!” I warned as I pushed myself up to sit against the railing. My back and ribs were throbbing a bit, though nothing seemed broken. I felt blood drip down the side of my face that was covered by bangs, probably had a cut across my temple. Add that to the bruise I was sure was already appearing on my cheek and the blood from my nose and mouth, I probably looked horrible.

“Why didn’t you avoid that attack!?” Luffy demanded.

“Can’t you see that he’s about to pull the trigger?” I asked back. I made a slight attempt to get to my feet but decided against it as my back cried out in protest. “Gin, you are such a coward. I’m disappointed. You really think that I can accept that deal?”

“Why not? It’s the easiest and best way!” Gin said. “If you leave this restaurant, everyone will survive!”

I couldn’t believe this. How had this nice day gone so far to hell in so short a time? “This restaurant is that old man’s treasure!” I said casting Gin a glare. He looked rather surprised by that.

“Sonya!” The chefs shouted, though I ignored them. “Sonya…doesn’t hate Zeff?”

I scoffed a bit. They were so slow on the uptake. “What are you talking about, idiots?” I asked. I lowered my head a bit to look at the ground. “I’ve already taken everything from that old geezer’s life. His power…his dream…that’s why…I don’t want him to loose anything else!”

“This is not a time to talk about that stupid story, you stupid kid!” Zeff scolded.

“Shut up!” I snapped. “How many times do I have to tell you not to treat me like a little kid?!”

“Sonya!” Patty screamed. “Watch out!”

I started to turn to figure out what Patty was shouting about when what felt like two cannon balls slammed into either side of my head. I cried out as the force crushed my skull. My vision went completely black as pain swamped every nerve ending. I felt jarred as I hit my knees. I couldn’t even manage to stay like that for a second before my body seemed to turn into liquid.

I hit the deck hard, unable to maintain my balance. I vaguely heard shouting from around me but couldn’t make my brain make sense of it. The taste of blood in my mouth would have made me cringe if I’d had the strength to do so, as it was I could only lie there and try to regain my bearings. “Sonya!! Get out of there!!” someone that I couldn’t place shouted.

I managed to reopen one eye and saw Pearl falling towards me. I grit my teeth a bit but my body simply wouldn’t move. I hadn’t recovered from the first attack yet all I could do was lie there. Pearl slammed against my back with so much force my body actually arched off the deck. I screamed as I felt something breaking in my lower back and ribs.

Pearl laughed as I fought to remain conscious despite the pain from my body. He’d used the edge of those stupid shields when he landed. I was pretty sure at least three bones were broken. I could barely breath through the pain. “Have you realized my power!?” Pearl asked.

I grimaced in pain. “You told us that you had taken everything from Zeff!” I recognized the voice of one of the Baratie chefs. “What did you mean, Sonya? Tell us now!!”


	8. Debt

* * *

Cruise Obit: Nine Years Ago

* * *

 

“All Blue?”

“Yep! Don’t you know about it? It’s the Legendary Sea!” I said excitedly. Ever since I had first heard about All Blue from my mother I had known I had to see it. It had just sounded too amazing. The three Chefs’ and me were in the galley during a brief moment of peace before dinner had to be started.

“I knew, but you are really crazy!” Dani -a chef with a long ponytail and striped pants- said with a small laugh.

Yuu, another chef with a short brown beard, gave a bit of a chuckle as well. “That’s Okay,” he said with a grin. “Because we are sea chef. It’s not strange that we dream about that sea.”

“I know, right? One day, I’ll find that sea!” I said with a grin. Back then I was only a chef trainee. A glorified dishwasher. But that was where everybody started so I didn’t mind too much. My hair was boyishly short, though I was anal-retentive to keep my bangs over my left eye. I could not _ever_ show my left eye. It would ruin everything if I did. I wore a chef’s coat, a little apron, and plain black pants.

“You think you’ll find it, Sanji?” The chef leaning back in the chair asked, calling me by the fake name I had given when I signed up to join the Cruise Obit’s crew. They didn’t allow girls to be at sea in the North Blue, so I had to besmirch the details and do a little creative lying. Even though we were no longer in the North Blue I had to keep the lie up since I had joined in that sea. I didn’t mind lying too much since being a chef on a ship was all I had ever really wanted to do. I had no other skills and opportunities were limited for orphaned girls.

I had finally gotten a chance to do what I’d always wanted to do and not just do what the adults had planned for me. So I was going to do it. I’d already lost a lot in my life and now I had this amazing chance, I wasn’t going to pass it up. I was going to find the most amazing thing ever.

“The Legend is just a myth. No one will find that sea because it doesn’t exist,” Yuu said with another chuckle.

“It exists!!” I snapped, even back then I’d had a temper.

“Hey!” Dani interrupted before I could start tearing into Yuu. “Think about this! All Blue is the sea that has every kind fish from around the world… From East Blue, West Blue, North Blue, and South Blue.”

I could do more than think about it. I could see it and practically taste it. Thousands of fish that covered the spectrum of colors and patterns. Thousands of different tastes and textures to experiment with. Stripes and polka dots and shiny scales that glittered like confetti. “If that sea really exists, it would be a paradise for sea chefs like us. Because we can get all kind of material, and we can use our skills to cook any kind of food!”

“Yes,” Yuu agreed with a small smile. “Even if you have to risk your life to search for it, it will pay off.”

“Only, that mysterious sea, All Blue, doesn’t really exist,” Dani said twisting in his seat to look at me with a grin. “If you use your head, you would know that. Only day dreaming chefs think about that sea.”

All three of them got to their feet and headed towards the double doors of the kitchen. “Let’s stop talking and get to work,” Yuu said stretching his arms above his head.

“Work work!” Dani said with a sigh. “Why don’t you just go pick up plates, Sanji?”

I scowled. They knew I hated it when they made fun of me like that. I was sure, beyond any doubt, that All Blue existed. I couldn’t explain _how_ I knew. I just did, just like I knew when to add a bit more salt to a dish or to use a certain spice to counter the natural bitterness of another ingredient. I just _knew._ Back when my mother was alive she had said it was amazing how I could pick out the right ingredients at my age.

I shook my head to dislodge the memories. There was no reason to be thinking about her now. She’d been dead for two years already and I wasn’t even on the island anymore. I had other things to keep me busy than thinking about horrible things like that.

Dinner was a busy affair and half the people didn’t finish their meals. I sighed a bit as I tossed a half eaten plate of grilled fish. “There are so many leftovers, what a waste!!” Dani said chomping down on a chicken leg.

“They didn’t even touch this plate. I worked hard on that!” Kris, the other chef said before eating it himself.

“Why are these guests so wasteful?” Yuu asked as he took a slurp of leftover soup.

I frowned. “Hey! Stop eating the leftovers,” I snapped as I scraped off another plate of half eaten food. “I already had to get rid of some rotten food. We still have plenty of food. Besides, we’ll get to port in two days.”

Kris raised an eyebrow over his glasses. “See, this is why you’re so skinny. Don’t forget that we are sea chefs! We don’t know what will happen in the future in the middle of the sea. So, we should be prepared,” he said munching away on some leftovers. “So, do you want to eat this leftover fish?” he asked holding up a fish that was mostly bones.

“No!” I snapped. What the hell was the matter with them?

Suddenly, there was screaming from outside. The three chefs exchanged a short look before rushing out onto the deck. I was frozen in place. I flattened the hair over my eye with a shaky hand, what if those thugs realized I survived and came after me? I’d left the island as soon as I could but still…

“Everyone, please calm down!” I heard the captain yell from outside.

I forced myself to move. I quickly found Dani in the chaos. “What’s going on?”

“A pirate ship! A pirate ship is heading towards us!” he said putting a hand on my shoulder as he glared at the oncoming ship.

“P-pirates?!” I gasped. On one hand I was relieved it wasn’t those murdering brutes again but pirates were probably worse than them. They didn’t care who they killed. I looked up in shock at the chicken head wearing a chef’s hat that served as the front of the ship. It was bigger than the Cruise Obit by about half. A giant knife and fork was crossed under the chicken head. Despite the rather humorous chicken head, the fork and knife somehow added a bit of menace. Like the ship would devour the Cruise Obit and us with it.

“A pirate ship!”

“It’s the Chef Pirates!”

“Red Leg Zeff’s Pirate ship? He came back from the Grand Line?”

There was a crash of thunder and the clouds that had been building all day exploded into a downpour of rain. Dani pushed me back into the galley as the pirates swarmed over the railing of the Cruise Obit. “Stay in here, Sanji!” he ordered.

It was only a few minutes before I heard screaming. The storm was getting worse, huge waves tossed both ships around like toys and I had to cling to a support inside the kitchen. I was _not_ trembling. No sir. I was… cold. Yes, that was it. The rain had soaked me and I was cold. _Not_ scared.

“Damn…” I muttered through my grit teeth. “Who wants to die by those pirates?” I asked myself. I quickly dashed over to a drawer and started rummaging around until I found two of the sharpest knives in the kitchen. There was no way in hell I was just going to let these pirates kill me.

I took the upper entrance to the deck and almost instantly was confronted by two pirates. One had a sword and another had a strange swirling blade on a stick that reminded me of a shell. They laughed a bit when they saw me with my two knives. “Brave kid,” the one with the swirling blade said. “But let’s put the knives down before you hurt yourself,” he said reaching towards me.

I swung one knife out and he pulled his hand back with a loud shout of pain. “What are you doing, little brat?”

“Hey kid, it’s dangerous to play with knives!” the other said.

“See? I’m bleeding now,” the one I had cut said pointing to the gash in his hand.

“Shut up!” I snapped. What did they expect when they attacked people?!

“No, Sanji!” Dani shouted. “Don’t fight them!!”

My chef friends weren’t the only ones freaking out. The passengers were frantic too. “Kid! Don’t annoy them!” one of them yelled. “Do something is he a member of your crew?” another asked the captain.

“Sanji! Step aside!” the captain ordered.

A large man I figured must be the captain of the pirates stepped up. He had short hair except for a long mustache that was done in two braids that had two tiny bows at the end of each side. “Kid, you want to die?” he asked. “I will help you!”

“Who wants to die?” I asked back. “You’ll kill us all anyway right? So, I better just kill you first!” I snapped holding one knife out in front of me to try and protect myself. It might have been intimidating if it weren’t perfectly obvious I’d never fought before. Well, not more than a few playground scraps. The captain moved so fast I couldn’t even react. His foot slammed into my stomach and sent me flying backwards and crashing into some crates.

“Sanji!!”

The pirates cheered a bit. “Beat that kid up!” the one I had cut urged. “He has no mercy at all!” the other said.

Blood was pouring down my face along with water from the rain. I hit the ground a little hard. I couldn’t just give up. I just couldn’t. I could barely breathe but that didn’t matter. I couldn’t make myself give up. Not when I’d done so much to get to where I was. I bit down on the pirate captain’s ankle; it was pathetic but the only thing that I could manage with how horribly I was aching. “I have a dream…” I said mostly to myself. “… One day I will find All Blue.” I could not die here because I was going to find it.

The pirates apparently heard me though. They burst out into laughter. “All Blue? What a stupid dream!” They laughed. “Why don’t you tell him, Captain? Even in the Grand Line there is no place like that!”

I heard Dani call me an idiot. “He still talks about that at a time like this?” Kris asked in frustration.

Suddenly, the captain kicked out, sending me slamming into the destroyed crates again. I coughed a bit as I stared up at the rain pouring down. God, those kicks hurt so much it was unreal. “I won’t allow you, you cold blooded pirate, to kill me in a place like this!” I managed to say.

“Let’s go, captain!” One of the pirates said. “The storm is coming faster than we thought.”

“Ok. Take all the treasures to our ship,” he said.

I coughed again, I swore something was broken it hurt so much. This was not how this was supposed to go. Suddenly, a huge wave crashed across the deck. I fought to try and grab onto something but there was nothing nearby and I was swept up in the unbeatable current of the wave. My head broke the surface and I gasped in air as best I could. “ **Sanji!”** Dani cried.

Suddenly, the wave broke apart against the banister and I was falling through open air. I screamed as I seemed to fall forever. I hit the freezing water hard. I couldn’t find the strength to actually try to swim and the tossing waves were making it so that I wasn’t even sure which way was up. It wasn’t but a few seconds before everything went completely black.

It felt like just a moment later when I finally opened my eyes. But judging by the bright clear sky above me it had definitely been more than a minute. “You regained consciousness, kid?” I was surprised to hear the voice of the pirate captain ask. “You are very lucky.”

I pushed myself up and instantly doubled over with a cry of pain. My ribs and stomach and…well…my whole torso really, was on fire. “It hurts!” I grit out as I wrapped my arms around my midsection.

“A person that has been kicked by me can’t move so fast,” the man growled out.

I ignored him and turned my attention to the utterly blank horizon. There was nothing but water. “Where’s the ship?” I asked staring at the nothingness.

“Ship?” The man echoed. “Do you see those pieces of wood? It sunk!” he said not moving a muscle from where he was sitting at the edge of the cliff. “However, my ship was destroyed too. I can tell by looking at those pieces of wood. But it is good that I didn’t find any dead bodies.”

I looked around. There was quite a bit of wreckage around. Mostly wood from one of the masts it looked like. “It’s been two days since the storm. We have arrived at an isolated island without plants or animals,” he informed me with utter calm. “Even though we are in the middle of the sea, the cliffs here are too steep. If we get down there, we won’t be able to climb up. You want to cry, right? Because you don’t have any food with you.”

“Who said that?!” I demanded. “It’s all your fault anyway! I’ll kill you!!”

“Stop barking!” he snapped. “You’re the one who will die, and I’ll eat your body for food.” My eyes widened at that. He couldn’t be seriously thinking of cannibalizing me!! What the hell!?

“The only choice for us is to wait for someone to rescue us,” he said turning back to the endless horizon. “If we are lucky, maybe there will be a ship tomorrow. However, if we are unlucky, we will have to wait here until we become corpses.”

I gasped a bit. I could imagine it a little too clearly. “Me?” A skeleton in a chef’s uniform with birds nesting on my broken skull came to my mind frighteningly fast and I tried to quickly shut it out. “A…corpse?!”

Suddenly, a bag hit the ground next to me. “This is your portion,” he said. “It’s the food I have found. It’s enough for five days. So you will have to use your head on how to make it enough for you. Luckily, both of us are chefs,” he said.

“W-wait a minute!” I said pointing at the bag he was carrying that was at least the size of me. “Your portion is three times bigger than mine! That’s unfair!”

“I am an adult so I need more energy than you do,” he said simply. He put his foot against my head. “In a situation like this we’d better be good to each other so we can survive.”

I growled a bit under his foot. “Stupid old fart!”

“You should be happy that I gave you _that_ food,” he replied unperturbed by my insult. “Don’t even think that I will get along with you! You stay here and I will wait on the other side,” he said pointing to the other side of a large group of rocks. “If a ship comes, just call me.”

I grabbed my small bag of food as he started walking towards the rocks. “Before that, we won’t deal with each other so we won’t loose any energy. Keep praying!”

I sighed a bit as he disappeared behind the rocks. With nothing else to do, I took his spot by the cliff and watched the sun start to slowly make its way towards the horizon. It turned bloody red as it spread out along the waterline. It would have been beautiful, had my stomach not been complaining about how empty it was. It had already been over two days since I had anything to eat.

I reached towards the bag of food but stopped. That old man’s words were still fresh in my mind. I only had five days of food and there was no telling how long we’d be here. I could wait until morning to eat something. I wasn’t that desperate.

It got steadily darker as I buried my face in my knees. Despite my best efforts tears built up in my eye. I had survived the death of my entire family and living on the streets and smuggled myself on board a ship and now I was stranded. Why was the world so crappy for _me_?! I felt the need to scream bubbling up and I fought against it as long as I could. It wasn’t fair!! I didn’t want to die! “ **I don’t want to die!!”**

My dreams were short and restless that night. My stomach kept waking me up. And I was having a few nightmares that I could really live without about when my family had died. It sucked something horrible but I would deal with it. I had to.

As soon as I woke up, I cleaned some of the dry blood off my face, though my movements were still jerky and painful from where that old man had kicked me. It was insane how strong those kicks were. I sat at the same spot that I had the day before and stared out at the unchanging horizon, the only activity to really _do_ on this god-forsaken rock. “That old man said that if I see a ship I have to tell him. Just keep dreaming…who wants to tell him?” I asked myself. “Just go to hell! I’ll survive on my own!” I’d been doing it for two years already. I could manage a few weeks on a rock.

“It’s only the sea,” I encouraged myself. “If I wait for four or five days maybe a ship will come. Besides, if they see those pieces of wood, they will come to rescue us!” I reasoned with myself as I pulled the food closer and undid the knot. Staying optimistic was supposed to be the key in situations like this.

The food was very tempting as I laid it all out around me. “And I also have enough food for five days. This is important so I’d better separate it into twenty-day portions. Those portions may not feel like enough but I need to have patience,” I said putting the food back into the bag. “Fortunately, I can still drink water from those rain basins.”

I glanced over to the puddles of water that had formed from the rain. It was fresh and would keep me hydrated at the very least. Hydration was actually one of my primary concerns. You couldn’t live as long without water as you could without food. The rule of threes. Three minutes without air (depending on your lungs and all that), three days without water, and three months without food. At least, that was what I thought it was…

“If I can do that for twenty days…I will survive!” I reasoned. “Easy!”

It was midday before I dared eat any of my food. It wasn’t near enough to take away the horrible growling and aching coming from my stomach but it took the sharp edge off. I stuck half of my head into the rain basin and gulped down the water. It did feel good to have enough of _something._ The thought to eat a bit more came to me.

“No!” I shouted at myself before sticking my head under the water. I had to keep as much food saved as I could. It was only the first day! I could handle it! I knew I could! I gulped down more water in an effort to make myself less hungry.

My stomach wasn’t buying it though. I was still hungry. I punched my stomach a few times with the mantra of ‘No Hunger!’ but I quickly stopped when I realized my abdomen was still horribly bruised from that bastard’s kicks.

The days seemed to melt together into one incredibly boring yet tortuous day. It was the third day in seemingly no time and I hadn’t seen even a flicker of movement from the sea.

On the fifth day it started to rain, and while that would fill up the basins with more water it would also get me soaked and if I wasn’t careful mold all the food. I erected a quick shelter from some of the wreckage of the ships and put the food and the makings of a fire under it.

It was hard to see anything through the rain but after a while I could make out the shape of a ship. I my eyes widened in joy. I knew I would be able to survive. “ **Hey! HEY!!”** I called, waving my arms around to try and make it easier for them to see me through the rain.

I dashed back to my shelter. “Fire! I have to light a fire so they can see me!” I said as I tried to start the wood. The wood smoldered but wouldn’t light. “Damn! It’s too wet!!” I turned and saw the ship starting to get smaller. **It was leaving**?!?!

“Wait! Don’t go!” I screamed rushing to the edge again. “ **I’m HERE!”** I screamed at the top of my lungs, raking my throat apart to try and be heard over the rain and steadily growing distance. “ **HELP!!!”** I didn’t even think to get the old man. It never even entered my mind.

To my utter horror, the ship kept getting smaller until I couldn’t even see it. I collapsed into a ball, ignoring the rain as I tried to stifle my tears at the missed opportunity. It wasn’t **fair**!! “ **Damn**!”

The next day I was sick. I must have caught something from being out in the rain and I didn’t bother to try and eat anything since as soon as I woke up I was throwing up over the side of the cliff. I curled up under my shelter, shivering as chills wracked my body. I was barely able to lay there and look for ships and I was pretty sure I fell asleep some time during the day since it seemed to pass by so quickly.

The next day wasn’t much better. I’d managed to eat something extremely small and fell asleep again. By the third day I was starting to get over it but that just meant that the driving hunger was back.

I started stretching my food even more by the tenth day. I cut the rations down even more so that they’d last longer. My stomach was in constant protest. I was starting to get thinner too. Not skeletally thin but I could tell considering my clothes were getting noticeably loose.

I was down to my last piece of moldy bread by day twenty-five. I had been keeping track of the days with a stick in the dirt. Though it was becoming a bit morbid in my mind. As I nibbled the stale bread my mind wandered to the last day on the Cruise Obit. To how many leftovers there had been. How I’d thrown some of them away.

I sniffed a bit. I would do anything for those leftovers right now. I fought back my tears. I wouldn’t cry about this. I could handle it! I knew I could! I sniffed away the last of my tears and went to wipe my eyes one last time. Suddenly, the bread slipped out of my fingers and bounced off the cliff into the sea. “AHH!” I stared after it. “My last piece of bread…” I whimpered.

“I’m starving…” I reached out towards the sea, wishing that I could magically bring it back. It was then that I noticed just how blurry my eyes were going. The lines of my hand were becoming fuzzy and the waves were all blending together. Crap. I did my best to ignore the hot tears that escaped my eyes.

The days stretched on and on without even a tiny glimmer of hope from a ship. Occasionally, I saw a bird fly by but they never landed on the island so I wouldn’t be able to catch and eat them. I had nothing with which to build a fishing pole and even if I did there was nothing to use as bait.

It rained again on day fifty. I took apart my shelter to cover myself. If I got sick again it would probably kill me. I was having more and more nightmares too so I wasn’t getting much sleep. The only thing I had going for me was the water that I still had. I drank so much water I felt like a fish. A very very _very_ hungry fish.

My stomach wasn’t buying the whole, drink more water and you’ll be less hungry trick anymore, not that it was really working to begin with. And remember what I said about not being skeletally thin? I had to revise that by day seventy. God, _seventy!_ I never thought I’d get this high. It was getting harder and harder to be optimistic about this. I hadn’t eaten in…forty days.

I turned a bit to cast a glance at the rocks that the old man had gone behind. “Is that old man dead yet?” In my mind it was now just a matter of time before we were both dead.

I crept up over the rocks and saw that he was sitting at the edge of the cliff with the same huge bag as before next to him. “He is still alive. And has plenty of food left!” God, the bag was still bigger than me! “He has that much food?!”

I reached into my belt and pulled out the knife that I had carried throughout this whole thing. I had gotten it before the Cruise Obit and now I was very glad I hadn’t thought to use it on the ship since I’d lost those two knives. “It’s all his fault anyway. I’ll just kill him and take all the food,” I muttered to myself. I was desperately hungry. “I want to survive!” I didn’t bother to sneak because I figured he’d probably catch me anyway.

“What are you doing here, little eggplant?” he asked without turning around. “Have you seen a ship?”

“I came here to take your food,” I said. “If you try to stop me I’ll try to kill you because if I don’t eat I’ll just die anyway!” He didn’t even make a move as I sliced through the canvas of the bag. “You still have plenty of food,” I rationalized. But I paused in shock when I saw what was inside the bag.

“I told you not to see each other…until we saw a ship!” he barked as I hit my boney knees.

“W-why is there only treasure in this bag?” I asked picking up a few pieces of gold.

“I have many treasures. But I can’t eat them.”

“Hey…this bag…it was all treasure? W-wait a sec…” I rushed over and grabbed his captain’s coat and shook him. “What about the food? How could you survive if you didn’t have any food?! You said that adults need more food! Then how-” I stumbled back and fell to the ground.

He was even bonier than me but he was missing his right leg. It just… just _ended_ mid shin. Tears clung to my eyes. “What….what happened to your leg?” I asked. He didn’t answer me but I hardly needed him to. He didn’t have any food for fifty days and now he was missing a limb. “You… ate your own leg?!!?”

“Yes.”

“But then… you gave me all of your food!?” I screamed in horror.

“Yes.”

“B-but without your leg, you can’t be a pirate anymore!”

“Yes.”

Was that all he could say!? What the hell!! “Are you out of your mind?! I am thinking about killing you when you gave me all the food!! I should have been doing something to help you! Why?”

He sighed a bit. “Because…both of us share the same dream.”

I blinked a bit. Dream? I’d had only nightmares since we got here. “All Blue?” I asked a bit confused. That was the only thing he could possibly mean. “But…your crew said that it didn’t exist”

“It does,” he said simply. “And when the time comes I’ll go back to the Grand Line. Even if I have to travel for a whole year. I see the possibility to find All Blue in the Grand Line. However, I have lost my crew. Without them, I don’t want to be a pirate anymore. And even when they didn’t believe in All Blue, they were good people,” he explained. “Such good people…” he muttered before falling backwards.

“Don’t die, old man!” I screamed hurrying over to his side. “You can’t leave me!”

He closed his eyes and sighed a bit. “The sea can be so cruel to us. I wonder…how many people there are waiting like us in this wide sea.” I knelt down next to him, unsure what to say. “I have been a pirate for so long and I have been through the situation where I didn’t have anything to eat many times. And whenever I think of that…I come up with an idea. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a restaurant in the middle of the sea?”

“Restaurant?” I echoed distantly. That would be wonderful right now.

“Yes, and if I ever get off this island, I will put everything to build a restaurant,” he declared to the sky. “The only person who can open up that restaurant in this age of piracy is me.”

“Okay! I will help you, so don’t die!” I said ignoring the tears that were spilling from my face.

He laughed a bit. “A weak kid like you can’t help me.”

“I will become stronger! You’ll see!!” I swore. I cast a glance at the sky; it was getting dark. My stomach wasn’t complaining for once, but it might have just given up knowing that it wasn’t going to be satisfied.

Slowly, I laid down, curling up next to the old man. I didn’t bother to ask and he didn’t mention it. “What’s your name anyway, old man?” I muttered.

“Zeff,” he answered. “You’re name’s Sanji right? That’s what the other chefs were calling you.”

I hesitated for a minute. I wasn’t technically supposed to be on that ship. Would he care about me stowing away like that? I somehow doubted it. And even if he did, we were about to die so what did it matter? “No… I’m Sonya,” he just grunted a bit and didn’t bother to ask about it for which I was grateful. I didn’t feel like getting into sexism and sailing when I was about to die.

Twenty-five more days slipped past and I could barely even move. I had started clinging to Zeff’s shirt and arm like the terrified kid I was and still he didn’t make any mention of it. It wouldn’t be long before we were both dead. Even if we went cannibal we would both die. It was simply too late to matter. And then, about midday a ship appeared. I could barely believe it. It was just too good to be true. Maybe I had died and being rescued was my heaven.

 

* * *

Baratie: Present Day

* * *

 

I punched the deck as I forced myself to my knees. The pain was excruciating but I wouldn’t give up. I had survived way too much to give up now. “He ate his leg and gave me all the food. So that I could survive!” I said.

“Sonya!” Luffy called in shock.

“She has been hit by my special technique, and she can still get up?” I heard Pearl ask as I struggled to my feet.

“I won’t give this restaurant to anyone!” I shouted. I had reached the ultimate end of my rope. Fighting for my life always brought out the worst in me. I lost any and all niceness at the thought of dying. “And I won’t allow anyone to kill that old man. In order to save the life of a kid he just met, he could sacrifice everything. If I don’t risk my life… I’ll never be able to repay what he did for me!”


	9. Honor

“Repay me?” Zeff echoed. “Don’t overreact, Sonya. I’m not so unfortunate to need a kid like you to protect me.”

I scoffed a bit. “Who’s overreacting?” I asked as I straightened my tie, ignoring the feel of still wet bloodstains on my shirt. My hair felt like it was about to fall out of its clip but so far it was holding the majority of my hair. “If you hadn’t given your leg for me these people wouldn’t have been able to hurt you in the first place, geezer,” I reasoned.

I tried to take a slow breath and faced of against Pearl as calmly as I was able. My body swayed, allowing the waves under the Baratie to control my moves more than I usually did. It just wasn’t worth the energy to correct. “Look at her. She can’t even stand straight,” I heard one of the chef’s mutter.

“It seems that Owner’s leg is lost…because of Sonya…so the reason that she’s staying here is…”

“…to repay Owner?” Patty finished sounding awed.

“Who’d have thought those two had such a deep relationship,” Carne said to the others.

I just ignored them, though it was annoying to be talked about like I wasn’t there. I already told them enough. I wasn’t going to go into the finer details about everything Zeff had done for me. I’d give my life a hundred times over for him and it still wouldn’t be enough. “Why?” Gin asked. “Why are you standing up, Sonya-chan?”

Pearl started laughing. “Still haven’t had enough of me? You will never defeat me!” he shouted as the fire continued to rage behind him. “In the real world, the loser is the one who is defeated. It doesn’t matter whether we use hostages or not…the winner is still the winner! Isn’t that right, Captain Krieg?” he shouted back at his captain.

“Absolutely,” Krieg agreed.

“Right, Gin-san?” Pearl asked turning back to Gin who was silent. “Maybe I shouldn’t ask you. You’re the one who always sticks to that rule,” Pearl said after a moment of Gin not answering. “Therefore, there’s no way that you can defeat us. Why do you still stand if there’s no hope!?”

I smirked a bit. How could they be so utterly stupid? Winning isn’t winning if you feel like crap afterwards. “I just want this place…to last just that one second longer,” I answered. Because if I can do that, I wouldn’t feel so bad about losing, knowing I gave my everything for it.

“Does that moron want to die!?” Patty growled out.

“Stupid kid!” Zeff muttered.

I flicked my eye back to where Zeff was. “Quit belly-aching, old man. You won’t change my mind,” I turned back fully to Pearl. “There’s only one thing in this world I’m afraid of, jumbo. And that ain’t you!”

“You still want to act cool? Let me tell you now…this restaurant is closed!” Pearl declared throwing his hands in the air in premature triumph. “And it will become a pirate ship! Try my Pearl Special Final Punch!” he shouted catching me hard across the temple with his stupid shields.

My back slammed into the railing again and my ribs and injured back screamed in protest. “Sonya!”

“Ouch! Hot! Damn it, the fire is getting stronger!!” a chef shouted. “The flames will get inside soon!”

“Hey, stop the fire! Otherwise we won’t have any ship left!” the pirates shouted as they tried to splash seawater onto the flames. “But the fire is too strong!”

I groaned a bit as I straightened. Blood was now pouring from my gums where several teeth had been knocked loose. I wiped the blood off my lips as best I could with the back of my hand as Pearl laughed. “You can try to counter if you want the old man to die!”

I glanced over at Zeff who still had Gin’s pistol pointed at the back of his head. ‘ _Shit. Shit shit shit shit! I’m running out of brilliant plans here,’_ I thought rubbing the blood off of my hand and onto my pants.

Suddenly, Luffy started growling. I looked over just in time to see him swing his leg into the air, it stretching upwards a ridiculous distance. “Ah! Wait, Luffy! Don’t hurt them!” I warned.

Luffy just ignored me. “Gum Gum **Axe**!” he shouted as his foot came slamming back against the deck and broke it into hundreds of pieces of floating debris. Pirates and chefs were flung every which way, though some managed to stay out of the water.

I leapt forward and landed on a particularly large piece though I couldn’t stop the wince as I landed. I would definitely have some bruises in the morning…assuming I lived that long, of course. “The porch…broke it into pieces!” Someone shouted. ‘ _Ugh…thanks for the news flash…’_ I thought as I straightened.

“Gin! Cut off that old man’s head!!” Krieg shouted from his spot on his ruined galleon.

I swung around to look at Gin with wide eyes. I knew he wasn’t Prince Charming but I really thought he was better than that! “Hey! I haven’t hurt any of you!” Luffy shouted. “I only broke the porch!”

I whipped around. “What were you thinking?!” I demanded.

“I’m going to destroy this ship,” he said simply.

“ **What**?!”

“ **GIN!! DON’T HESITATE! KILL ZEFF**!!” Krieg shouted.

I couldn’t help but grab Luffy by the front of his vest. “What are you crazy?! Weren’t you listening to a word I said?! Why I’ve stayed here all this time?!”

“Just destroy this ship and their goal cannot be accomplished!” Luffy replied as if it were perfectly reasonable and –if it were any other ship- it would be and I’d be agreeing with him. But this was _The Baratie._ Not just any old crap ship to be thrown aside.

“Do you know how much I owe this place? How important it is?” I asked in a low voice.

Luffy slapped my hands away with a stern look that I was a little taken aback to see. “So you want to die for this restaurant? What an idiot!”

“What was that?!”

Suddenly, he grabbed the front on my shirt. “ **You’re not repaying him by dying!! He didn’t save you for this!”** he shouted. “ **He saved you, yet you want to die! You’re a weakling!”**

My shock quickly faded to anger. “ **I have nothing else to give! You think I have anything to go back to?!** ”

“Both of you, stop fighting now!” Pearl snapped. Luffy and me both turned in vague surprise. “It is your bad luck that you met Krieg’s Pirates. You can’t do anything anyway! As long as we still have a hostage!” Suddenly, he dashed forward shields bursting into flames. “I will burn both of you with **Fire Pearl**!”

Someone pushed past me and suddenly Gin was standing there while Pearl’s armor shattered. My eyes widened in shock. There had to be a ridiculous amount of force coming from those metal ball…things. They looked almost like police batons but that mace-like end was nasty looking.

“Sorry, Pearl,” he said as Pearl started to fall. “Please, get out of my way!”

“Gin-san…w-why?” Pearl sputtered as he fell to the ground with a bloody cough.

“ **Gin-san**!” The pirates cried. “Why did you hurt Pearl-san like that!?”

Krieg looked positively livid. “Gin! Are you trying to betray me?!”

“I’m sorry, Captain Krieg,” Gin said turning halfway. “Can I end this woman’s life with my own hands?” he asked twisting his weapon to rest on his shoulder.

I frowned a bit. Wonderful…now Gin wanted to kill me. And I was still injured from that idiot Pearl. “He can break that strong armor in one hit!!” Patty shouted in shock from where he and Carne had rushed to Zeff’s side.

“See? My plan is going great,” Luffy said with a grin.

“What are you talking about?” I demanded. “You wanted to destroy the ship!”

“Are you out of your mind, Gin?” Krieg asked.

Gin didn’t answer the question but turned to face me completely. “Sonya-chan, I wanted you to get off of this ship without being injured, but that seems to be impossible.”

“Damn right it is,” I agreed rummaging around in my pocket for my cigarette holder. I definitely needed some nicotine right now. Everyone was trying to kill me and that was stressing me out for some _odd_ reason.

“So, I would like to be the one who kills you. It’s my special honor from me to you,” he finished.

I took my time to light my cigarette. “Gee, Gin, I didn’t take you for the romantic type…I don’t know what to say. You’re so sweet,” I said sarcastically.

“You too, kid. It would’ve been better if you left with your friends earlier,” Gin said to Luffy.

Luffy shrugged a bit. “Don’t worry. I won’t lose to a bunch of weaklings like you,” he said simply.

Krieg’s pirates acted like he’d just sucker punched them. “How dare he say that to our commander! They’ve gone too far this time! Did they realize that we are Krieg’s Pirates? The strongest pirates of the East Blue Sea?”

I frowned a bit. What was this 'they' business? “How have _I_ gone too far?” I wondered aloud. I hadn’t even said anything…

“You claimed that you are the strongest only because you have a lot of people on your side. Isn’t that right?” Luffy asked casually.

Again the pirates acted as if Luffy had physically attacked them. They flew back in shock before falling utterly still. “They’re stunned,” I commented as I exhaled a cloud of smoke.

“So, it’s true then,” Luffy concluded.

“You crazy kid! Why did you upset them?!” a chef yelled from where he was treading water. “Their Don Krieg’s pirates! They are the real thing!” another shouted in agreement.

“Idiot!!” Patty screamed while Zeff chuckled a bit.

The pirates suddenly rushed forward, weapons raised threateningly. “If we can’t kill them with our hands, we are not real pirates!!” they shouted angrily.

“Stop there!” Krieg suddenly ordered.

“Captain Krieg! But…they are..”

Krieg scowled at them. “You’re upset because someone called you a weakling? It means that you really are a weakling!” Krieg concluded. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re strong or weak. It’s all about the result! I’m still here so why are you complaining?” he asked with a confident smirk.

“ **Aye!! Captain Kreig!!** ”

“He has true charisma,” Patty commented.

Carne nodded a bit. “So, it’s not a joke that he can control over fifty ships.”

“Hey kid!” Krieg called out suddenly. “Between me and you, who do you think will become the greatest pirate?” he asked pointing between the two of them.

“That must be me,” Luffy said instantly.

“Can’t you be nice to him!?” Patty demanded from where he was sitting next to Zeff. I sighed a bit. Honestly, at this point being nice would be just a pointless gesture. Krieg wouldn’t let us go now.

Luffy turned to look at Patty with a confused look. “Why do I have to be nice?” he asked.

Krieg growled a bit and got to his feet. He removed one of his pauldrons from his shoulder, staring darkly at Luffy. “Good! Get out of my way!” He held out the pauldron like a shield in front of him. “I will teach that dreamer kid the truth about real power.”

“M…MH5!!” the pirates shouted in fear.

“What? Wait a minute, Captain Krieg!” Gin begged.

“What’s that?” Luffy asked curiously.

I brought my cigarette to my mouth again. I frowned a bit at the shield thing. Why did everyone in the crew use shields for weapons anyway? It was seriously annoying. “MH….5?” the chefs echoed.

“If it’s a canon, I can bounce the canon ball back,” Luffy stated without even a hint of worry.

I had to admit I wasn’t too worried either. Up until I noticed Gin was freaking out too. “I beg you Captain Krieg! Please, let me kill her by myself!!” Okay, the whole ‘kill her’ part was cause enough to worry but him _begging_ was perhaps even more unsettling in my mind.

“I don’t care how she will be killed,” Krieg replied evenly. “I always tell you that I hate the words, ‘pride’ and ‘sympathy’. So, understand this! This is a fight, and the only goal is to win.” His shield started to shake, just the tiniest of tremors. “As long as the victory is mine, I can even use poison gas!” he shouted as the skull on the front of the shield’s mouth opened.

“Poison gas!? Are you insane!” I demanded. In the open air like this, poison gas would be deadly to _everyone!_

“Captain!!”

Krieg smiled “You inhale this gas just one time and the poison will get into your bloodstream, and then you’ll die. And **that** is **real power!!”** he shouted as a bullet shot out of the hole in his shield.

“I will kick that to the sea!!” Luffy shouted before running forward.

I missed grabbing onto him as he ran past me. “Luffy! Come back!”

Luffy jumped into the air and brought his leg around to kick the bullet off course. “It’s only stupid poison gas!”

“No,” Gin said softly. “That’s not it…”

Suddenly, the bullet exploded and dozens of razor sharp shuriken went flying in every direction. I quickly jumped backwards to avoid the hail of sharpened metal as Gin spun one of his weapons to block them. “Eh?” The chefs’ eyes were bulging out of their skulls. “What is that? Shuriken!?”

Luffy hit the deck with a cry of pain and several new cuts across his body though none looked particularly serious. “That…that hurt!!”

“It’s a shuriken bomb?” The pirates asked pulling gas masks off of their faces. “He tricked that kid!”

Luffy looked down at his bleeding shoulder. “Eh? It’s not a poison gas?”

“Everyone’s already said that Luffy!” I snapped. Seriously, he might be cute but he was denser than dirt.

Krieg let out a huge open-mouthed laugh. “The poison gas is an important weapon, so I have to use it wisely. I think it’d be better to use it to destroy a small village. You are just a bunch of cowards, so I won’t waste that weapon.”

“Is that so. He got me one,” Luffy stated folding his arms over his chest.

I rolled my eyes. The song ‘If I only had a brain’ came to mind and I had to try very hard to resist at the very least humming it. “Why does he say that?” Carne asked from behind me.

“This is a real fight. I’ve got many ways to kill you!” Krieg shouted. “So, answer me again! Between you and me, who will become the greatest pirate?”

“I told you that it must be me,” Luffy said still unaffected by Krieg’s weapons or shouting. “You don’t have even a tiny chance!”

Krieg growled like a feral animal. “Gin!” he snapped. “I will let you finish that chef! But I will finish this stupid brat by myself!” he announced.

“Captain Krieg is really mad now!” The pirates treading water looked a bit scared for their own lives.

“Roger, Captain Krieg,” Gin said turning to face me completely. “Sorry, Sonya-chan. But you can’t defeat me.”

I chuckled a bit. “My goodness, aren’t you just the tough man?” I asked taking a drag from my cigarette. “But I’m not some pathetic little girl to be knocked around, ya know.”


	10. MH5

Gin started spinning his weapons in his hands until they were almost a blur. He suddenly rushed forward. “Here I come!” His crew cheered him on from the sidelines. Suddenly, he dropped one metal ball to the deck as he ran.

My eyes widened in surprise as the deck became dangerous shrapnel. I leapt just in time to avoid his swing that shattered the deck where I had just been standing. I lashed out with my foot, trying to catch him when his momentum stopped him from changing directions. But he spun in mid air and dodged my kick with a grin.

“I was known as ‘A Devil’,” he said as he continued his spin and brought the bar of his weapon in his right hand down against my collarbone. I hit the deck hard as his weapon pinned me. He landed in a casual cross-legged position with his free weapon resting easily on his shoulder.

I mentally cursed. He had been faster than I thought and my injuries from Pearl were making this far more difficult than it needed to be. I should have been able to dodge that no problem. “I won’t show you anymore sympathy,” Gin said raising his weapon into the air. “Goodbye!”

He started spinning the weapon around above his head. “I will crush you into pieces!” he shouted.

I brought the hand holding my cigarette up to my face and inhaled as I heard his crew cheer him on. I crushed my cigarette out on the deck. The chefs were screaming my name as I exhaled a long stream of smoke upwards. The smoke went straight into Gin’s face as I used my hands to slide my body out from under his weapon pinning me to the deck.

His other weapon slammed into the deck as I entered a slightly wobbly handstand. My foot came down to the deck before I shot it back up, catching Gin under the jaw with its steel heel.

I didn’t even get a chance to realize it was happening before Gin brought one of his iron maces slamming into my side. I felt something crack and I could taste fresh blood before I hit the deck, probably jamming my shoulder in the process though that was the least of my concerns.

“That chef kicked Gin-san!”

“Don’t tell me that even Gin-san was beaten up!”

“You idiots!” Krieg snapped as I rolled over to get my feet under me. “Don’t worry about him. Haven’t you realized? Gin is a cold-blooded Devil. That’s why I made him your commander! Soon, you will see the real Gin.”

“That’s right. He can kill an enemy without any mercy,” a pirate agreed with their captain.

“Even if that person was to beg him to spare his life. That’s why people call him Devil. Because he is heartless,” another added.

I finally managed to get to my feet, although my hair was now completely down from all the hits I had taken. I hoped it wouldn’t get in my way but I didn’t really have the luxury of fixing it right now. “Will Sonya be okay?” I heard Patty ask.

“She’s not been ‘okay’ since the first fight. And with this fight, I think she has a broken rib,” Carne answered.

I smirked a bit. “I guess it’s a good thing I have so many then.” I turned more fully to Gin who was also standing again. “So you’re a commander, huh? You must be joking. It seems that Krieg’s pirates are not as good as what people have said.”

Gin looked a bit surprised but the surprise disappeared quickly and he licked the trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. I smirked. “Sexy.”

This time I was the one that rushed forward, though I had to take more steps since my ribs and back were making it a bitch to even move, much less run. I jumped up into the air and flung my leg out on to have it meet the bar of one of Gin’s maces. I winced as I twisted to land a solid kick against Gin’s chest.

He went flying back but landed more or less on his feet while I landed crouched with my hand on my side. I forced myself to move, needing to press every slight advantage I had. I swung my leg out and he ducked it before swinging both maces at me.

I stumbled back and managed to avoid the one but the other caught me dead in the hip and I crashed into a piece of deck that had been torn up. I groaned a bit as I pushed myself up. I wasn’t willing to back down. Not yet. “You’re pretty fast, Sweetheart. Too bad I’m not up to full strength…I wonder which one of us would have been faster…”

“You don’t stand a chance, Sonya,” Gin said. “Just give up now. I promise, I’ll make it quick.”

I chuckled a bit, despite the fact that it hurt to do so. “Don’t be in such a rush, Gin, my dear. Finishing fast isn’t something I’d brag about.”

Gin scowled a bit at that. I smirked. Why was it men were so sensitive about that single issue? They should try being a woman one of these days…it was three times harder. Gin was suddenly moving and I didn’t have a chance to do much other than leap to the side.

I rolled until I was able to get my feet under me and quickly straightened. Gin was still coming at me and I jumped upwards to avoid one of his maces before spinning and bringing my heel down towards his head. Suddenly, he spun, surprising me completely since I thought he was too far into his other attack to dodge.

His other mace hit me in my already injured side and I cried out as my ribs shifted and I hit the floor hard. I coughed a bit, blood spattering the deck with an unpleasant sound. I wiped my mouth as I got to my feet again. “My my my… a little sensitive about that are we?” I asked turning to face him again. “I’m surprised…you didn’t seem like the type to have that sorta problem…”

“Sonya! Stop talking like that!” Patty ordered.

I just ignored him, mostly because I was already leaping forward into a handspring. My legs spun around and the metal heels met Gin’s weapons with the clang of metal on metal. Gin’s foot came out and I pushed off with one hand to avoid it, breaking my spin midway through.

Gin wasted no time to hit me across the back with both of his maces. I saw nothing but black as my back bowed under the force of the two maces. I didn’t even hit the ground as one of the maces left my back and suddenly was slamming into my side. I couldn’t help but cry out as I slid against the deck before crumpling.

“Yeah! Get her, Gin-san!” The pirates cheered.

I tried to push myself up but the pain in my ribs and back was just too strong. I coughed a bit, tasting blood each time. I tried to move but only ended up crumpled against the ground again with a groan of pain. I had to have at least six broken ribs by now and all of them were beyond painful. Not to mention the agony that was my back.

All I could see was the curtain of my hair as I tried to force myself up again. “All her bones are broken!” the pirates cheered.

“If only Sonya wasn’t hurt by that Iron Wall guy!” I recognized the voice of one of the chefs. “Sonya’s been hit by that man’s weapons over six times!” I really wish they hadn’t been counting…

I finally managed to sit upright, though I was starting to regret the idea as my body screamed in protest. “Those toothpicks he uses?” I asked. “Don’t make me laugh…Th-they’re glorified paperweights…”

‘ _But still…if I get hit by them one more time I’m probably done for…’_ I thought holding my jammed shoulder with one hand and my injured side with my other.

Gin raced forward, both his maces spinning. “Just die! Stop trying, Sonya-chan!!”

I reacted instantly, cart wheeling to avoid his swing. “Was that mercy?” I demanded. “Don’t insult me!” I ordered as I brought the top of my foot down against the back of his neck.

“Ah! Gin-san!!”

I didn’t even land before I cried out in pain. The force of my kick had wrenched all my broken bones and bruised muscles. I landed on my knees and instantly wrapped both arms around my middle. My breaths were coming in short and ragged. “ **Sonya**!”

“She can’t go on anymore!” Patty shouted.

“She can’t even stand the power of her own kicks!” I growled a bit. Did they not realize I had ears and could hear them!?

“She…is right here…morons…” I bit out between ragged breaths.

The pirates were laughing up a storm as Gin grabbed me around the neck and pinned me to the deck. I didn’t have enough strength to fight him anymore. “That kid can’t fight anymore!” One of the pirates noted. Goddamn this running commentary!

“D-damn…” I muttered as Gin raised his mace over his head.

Just then, I noticed that Gin had thick streams of tears running down his face. “Captain Krieg!! I can’t do it!!” he shouted suddenly, taking his hand off of my throat and lowering his mace.

My eyes widened in shock. After all that…he couldn’t finish me off? “I can’t…kill this woman…” Gin said getting off of me completely.

“What did you say?!” Krieg growled out.

“Because…” Gin tried to start before breaking off.

“Say that again!!” Krieg ordered angrily.

Gin reached up and tugged at the headband he wore. “Because…it’s the first time that I’ve received kindness from another person since I was born. I can’t kill her…” he said with a loud sniff.

“Coward!” Krieg spat.

“Is Captain Krieg going to…?” The pirates asked each other as Krieg moved the shield weapon to point at the shattered porch of the Baratie.

“You can’t kill her? You really disappoint me, Gin,” Krieg said with ample disgust in his voice. “I always believed that you were the most trusted crewman I’ve ever had, and you were the one who would lead Krieg’s pirates to success!”

Gin just lowered his head where he kneeled next to me. I still couldn’t find the strength to move after the beating I took but at least I wasn’t gasping for breaths anymore.

“The reason I made you the commander of fifty ships…” Krieg continued. “Is that I saw something in you that would lead us to win any way possible!”

“I understand that, and I’ve never thought of betraying you. Until now, everything that I’ve done for you, I’ve never regretted!” Gin said closing his eyes tightly though his tears kept falling. “I’ve always respected your power and admired you. But…this is the only person that I can’t kill!”

I smiled a bit in spite of myself. He wasn’t really all that bad a guy…even if he did break several of my ribs…and threaten to bash my head in… Now that I think about it that sounded really bad…

“Captain Krieg, if it’s possible…” Gin began slowly. “It it’s possible for you can you let this ship go?” It was instant pandemonium.

“Gin-san! What are you saying?!”

“What happened to you?”

“What’s wrong with our commander?!”

 **“My most loyal man dares to go against me?”** Krieg shouted. **“Your idea pisses me off!”** he said holding his shield up in front of him again.

Again the pirates panicked. “Ah! MH5!!”

“Let’s put on our masks!”

“This time it’s for real!!”

I barely heard Luffy growl something over the panicked screams of the pirates. “But…we survived because of this restaurant…”

“Throw away your mask!” Krieg ordered. “You are not one of my men anymore!”

My eyes widened a bit. You couldn’t just throw someone out like that…not in my little world I like to call _reality_! “Wha..? Captain Krieg…” Gin looked just as shocked as I was. He even took a slight step back.

“Captain is going to kill Gin?”

“Are you nuts?” one of the pirates snapped. “I don’t think so because Gin is the Captain’s most trusted man!”

“Yes. There is no one as loyal to our captain as Gin-san,” another agreed. “Remember that time when we were escaping from the Grand Line and Fullbody of the Marines was chasing us? Gin went alone, dressed as captain and lured those marines away.”

So, that was how Fullbody had captured someone as strong as Gin. He’d masqueraded as Krieg. It made more sense now. I had whipped Fullbody without breaking a sweat and Gin had sufficiently beaten me…even if I was injured he showed that he could more than handle Fullbody.

“That man always risks his life to save Captain Krieg.”

“He’s done everything to succeed even though people would call him a Devil. So, Captain will never kill him!”

 **“Throw away your mask!”** Krieg shouted in clear contradiction of his crew’s predictions. Gin looked down at the mask in his hand.

Suddenly, a rush of movement attracted my attention. Luffy was running across the downed mast. “Who’d let you use that poison gas?!”

Krieg shot out a dozen or more spikes painted kind of like candy canes “Get out of my face!!”

Luffy dodged by sliding around the side of the mast like a monkey. “That trick isn’t gonna work again!” he started shuffling along the bottom of the mast at almost the same speed he had been running at. It was incredible actually…

“You little brat!” Krieg shouted. “I’ll kill you!” he said before punching the mast and breaking it clean through so that it began to fall into the sea.

“Ah! It’s sinking!!” Luffy shouted as the heavy wooden pole started to go under. He sprung up and Krieg shot more of those spikes at him instantly. Once Luffy had dodged them all he landed on the edge of the broken porch. “Gin! Don’t listen to that coward! I’ll crush him soon!!”

Suddenly, Gin sat up straighter. “Hey, you! Stop insulting Captain Krieg!” My eyes widened. Gin was going to sit there and defend the person who was trying to kill him?! “Captain Krieg is the strongest man in the world. You’ll never defeat him!”

I grabbed his arm around his bicep. “Gin! Can’t you open your eyes? That man’s thinking about killing you!!”

“That’s okay,” Gin said without looking at me. “Because I’m just a weakling who doesn’t follow orders and lets all his crew down. This is what I deserve!” he finished, throwing the mask into the ocean.

“Wh-what?!” I shouted as the mask disappeared.

“ **Poison Gas Bullet! MH5!!** ” There was an explosion and a large bullet came racing towards us.

‘ _Shit shit shit shit shit!’_ I thought as the pirates put their masks on and the chefs dived under the water and began to swim as far as they could. I was completely unable to muster the strength to move out of the way. I was about to die…because of poison of all things!

“Use these!” Luffy shouted throwing two masks at Gin and me.

I glanced over and saw Patty and Carne carrying Zeff inside the Baratie. Gin grabbed the masks that had landed closer to him than me. He tossed one back at Luffy, who was screaming now that he realized _he_ had no mask. “Gin!”

Before I could protest further Gin leapt forward and crushed me against the deck, the mask pressed against my face. My hands went to his arms but they were still holding the mask against my face. “Gin! Take you hands off me!” I snapped. “Gin!”

Slowly, Gin loosened his grip and I wrenched the mask off my face. The last bits of gas were drifting away quickly thanks to the sea breeze. “You!” Luffy shouted as Gin moved off of me completely. “What about the mask?”

Gin didn’t answer. His breaths were rattled and blood was streaming from his nose and mouth. “You’re the one that gave me the mask?” Luffy asked in surprise.

Then, Gin fell back, coughing up a huge amount of blood. “Gin!” I cried reaching out to him instantly. I pulled him into my arms, trying to help ease the strain on his breathing.

Krieg suddenly burst into laughter. “You idiot! You risked your life for a person who gave you a stupid meal?” he asked with more laughter. “A fool will not learn until he dies!”

“Ca…captain…” Gin rasped with tears and blood streaming from his face.

“Gin, you’ve been looking up to the wrong person,” I said tightening my grip on his limp body.

The veins on Luffy’s body were bulging with anger. “ **Krieg**!!!”


	11. Spear

Krieg was laughing loudly on the other deck as Gin groaned with pain and tried desperately to breathe. “You feel sorry for that piece of crap?” he asked between laughing bouts.

I ground my teeth together a bit. How dare he call someone who’d just shown an insane amount of loyalty to him a piece of crap! “Ungrateful bastard,” I muttered darkly.

“The fool who lets me down and doesn’t follow my orders is not important to me,” Krieg said with a half smile. “He always made mistakes. I have shown him a mercy by killing him,” Gin let out another sound of utter pain and clutched his throat as more blood trickled down his face.

Everyone was finally resurfacing from where they had dived under the water to avoid the gas and I heard Patty calling out to me from the front of the Baratie. I turned “Patty! Do you have any antidotes?” I demanded.

“Err…I have some of that liquid antidote,” he started. “But that man is our enemy.”

“Whatever you have, bring it here now!” I ordered.

Suddenly Zeff appeared in the doorway, using a crutch to replace his peg leg that Gin had broken. “Idiot! Why don’t you put that mask on his face? That mask has some sort of antidote. After that, take him upstairs so he can breathe freely. That is the only way you can help him out.”

I instantly grabbed the nearby mask and slipped it over his face. “Hurry up, Patty! Carne!”

“I know stop complaining!” Patty shouted back as they ran across the destroyed deck.

My attention was brought back to Luffy who had apparently taken a few steps forward when I wasn’t looking. “Don’t die, Gin,” he ordered. “Don’t let that kind of person kill you! No matter what you have to survive! Understand? I will take care of him!” he promised.

“D..don’t..you c..c…can’t…defeat him,” Gin gasped through the mask. I winced a bit as blood started to ooze out of the metal grate over where his mouth was. Whatever that poison was it was absolutely nasty.

Luffy started to move as Patty and Carne took Gin from me. I quickly reached out and grabbed his arm. “Luffy, you could be killed,” I said knowing just how hard to fight against Krieg’s lackeys had been I couldn’t begin to imagine Krieg’s strength.

“I will never die!” he growled wrenching his arm out of my grip. Suddenly, he ran towards Krieg at full speed. “Just shoot me if you dare!” he shouted.

“Hey!” I shouted but I still couldn’t muster enough strength to move and try and stop him more than that.

“Moron! You come to me for your death?” Krieg asked.

I grit my teeth in anger. This entire situation was wearing my nerve down to almost nonexistent. “Damn it,” I growled to myself. “You’re going to get yourself killed, cutie.”

I could only watch in amazement as Luffy charged Krieg headfirst without any heed of the spikes that the other captain launched his way. He didn’t even stop as Krieg’s cape formed a shield of spikes; he punched it anyway. He punched it so hard that Krieg was hit even through the shield. “He’s unbelievable…” I whispered in awe. I’d never seen anybody that reckless and confident.

“Take a close look at him, Sonya,” Zeff said stepping next to where I was sitting. Up above I could hear Patty and Carne trying to nurse Gin back to health but I was still too stunned by Luffy to yell at them to stop arguing. “It’s hard to find someone like that…someone who won’t give up until death,” Zeff said with an amused smile.

“Won’t give up until death?” I repeated softly.

“He’s a very dangerous man to fight,” Zeff continued. “This fight will end with winning or losing…I really like those kind of men.”

I turned my attention back to the fight. Krieg was just getting up and looked beyond angry but Luffy seemed completely unfazed. I couldn’t help but agree with Zeff. There was something very amiable about how committed Luffy was. Maybe he wasn’t as much an idiot as I had first thought. I watched as Luffy sent Krieg slamming into the deck again and felt my admiration grow a little bit more. He really was something else.

Krieg, however, wasn’t done with his tricks. He used his armor and formed a Death Spear that sliced the deck they were standing on in half. But that wasn’t nearly all it did. It exploded every time it hit something and Luffy went flying with only his rubber arms to reach out and grab something to keep from falling into the water. I grimaced a bit as I watched. Krieg just didn’t seem able to fight fair. And Luffy was slowing down a bit. “He’s lost too much blood,” I muttered. _‘Like I have..’_ I added to myself. And that, along with my broken bones, was the only reason I didn’t jump up to try and help Luffy as Krieg started swinging his spear around.

Luffy was doing fairly well, dodging each attack from Krieg with his rubber body. Suddenly there was an explosion from Krieg’s weapon and Luffy was engulfed in a cloud of smoke. “Luffy!”

Krieg pulled back his spear to strike again as Luffy got to his feet. “I am not giving up….” There was another explosion and Luffy went flying backwards and hit the deck a charred and bloody mess.

“Heh heh…do you realize now that I am the strongest?” Krieg asked as his pirates cheered.

“Luffy!” I tried to get up but my ribs gave a painful twinge and I fell back to my knees almost instantly. But it seemed like I didn’t need to worry because Luffy slowly got to his feet. I stared in open shock as the blade of Krieg’s spear shattered.

“What is this? My weapon…what did you do?!” Krieg shouted in outrage.

“I hit it five times! You’d better be prepared!” Luffy said with an insane grin despite the smoke that was still rising from his body. “Since I destroyed it’s blade…that spear has become just a bomb with a stick. Its power has decreased by half.” I blinked a bit in surprise. He’d figured that out himself? So fast? It seemed that Luffy might not be the brightest bulb but he had his moments.

“Is that so?” Krieg sneered. “A bomb with a stick has enough power to crush you in pieces!” He shouted holding up his fist threateningly. “By the way, you’ve been injured so greatly that I think another two hits by this bomb and you will stop bragging!”

“I didn’t brag,” Luffy denied.

“Like he said…if Luffy is hit by that spear twice more…no just one more time…he’ll die,” I muttered as a trickle of blood rolled down my neck and began to stain my collar a rusty red. “There’s just…no way he can win against someone with that many tricks.”

“Even though he has equipped himself with thousands of good weapons…he may not be able to defeat the one weapon that kid has,” Zeff commented. I looked over in surprise. What weapon was Zeff talking about? Luffy didn’t have any weapons with him. “In a pirates fight you can either die or survive the person who worries about death, even for a second can be crushed!”

I blinked a bit, trying to make my brain comprehend what my teacher and guardian was saying. Finally, I settled for just asking. “What are you saying, Zeff?”

“At least that kid is not afraid of dying,” Zeff said. I turned back and saw that Zeff was right. Luffy was grinning like a mad man and not in the least bit afraid. “The weapon for surviving or the instinct to never worry about dying.”

“Instinct?” I echoed in vague confusion.

The fight had picked up again before Zeff could elaborate further. Krieg’s swings were becoming more and more wild while Luffy still didn’t seem to have much problem dodging them. Krieg took down one of the few masts that had remained standing and Luffy used a piece of it to hurl at Krieg who burned it to ash with a flamethrower.

“A Flamethrower?!” I exclaimed in utter frustration. “How many weapons does this guy have?”

Luffy suddenly unleashed a barrage of punches until it seemed like hundreds of fists were being thrown all at once. It was incredible. Krieg was suddenly standing on the only standing mast. The one with the crow’s nest on it. Luffy pulled his arms back as he ran up the side of the huge timber. “Are you crazy?” I demanded. “Don’t get close to him! It’s a trap!”

Suddenly the entire ship exploded and pieces went flying everywhere. “Luffy!!” Then I could make them out. Luffy was alive and Krieg was falling with the pieces of his armor falling in pieces around him. Krieg fired a net, trapping Luffy as they started to fall the several hundred feet to the water. But Luffy stuck his legs out of the net and stretched them out, twisting them into a corkscrew before fastening them around Krieg’s neck.

“Why doesn’t he give up?” I turned to look at Zeff with surprise. “That’s what you’re thinking, right?”

“Hey!! Do something!” Krieg yelled to his crew.

They instantly took out several crossbows and pointed them at the pair. I forced my aching body to move. There was no way I could just sit there and let Luffy get ganged up on after everything he’d already fought through. I slammed my heel into two of the nearest pirates, sending their crossbows flying. “Stop that,” I ordered the others as I balanced myself of the two pirate’s faces. “Don’t you dare get involved!”

I heard screaming and turned my attention to Krieg who was now spinning around rapidly and heading for the deck of the Baratie at high speed. The slam was teeth jarring and I actually winced as the wood splintered around him. “That…sounded painful...”

I sighed a bit and sat on the deck of the Baratie, I was totally drained of energy and just standing for that short time had been far too hard. “If Krieg’s crew, weapon, and poison are power then that kid’s spirit is power as well,” Zeff said.

“Spirit...” I repeated. “And instinct.”

Zeff turned and started walking towards the Baratie. “I knew that Krieg’s weapons would be no match for that spirit. They weren’t good enough. What are you doing? He can’t swim because of that fruit he ate that gave him his ability.”

I gave a start of shock. “Damn it! Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” I demanded as I wrenched off my heavy boots and jumped in after Luffy. It wasn’t too hard to spot Luffy; his bright red vest was easy to see. Though he had sunk further than I had expected. It took only minimal effort to tug the net off of him and start swimming back to the surface.

Luffy was nothing but dead weight but due to my fighting style I had plenty of power in my kicks and I could swim pretty fast, even with a burden and broken bones. Even still my lungs were burning a bit, not to mention my wounds, as I burst through the surface of the water and dragging in air. I slapped his cheek a bit. “Hey, don’t die!” I said. And then I heard the snore. He was sleeping. I rolled my eye a bit and started heading for the deck.

‘ _They are all that reckless,’_ I thought, remembering how Zoro hadn’t even taken a step back against that Mihawk guy. But then, none of them had died from it. If anything they had a chance to get even stronger. Maybe that was what it took to achieve your dreams. Suddenly, I became aware of the yelling. Krieg was up and raving like a lunatic.

Just as quickly as the ranting started, Krieg was cut short by Gin’s fist in his gut. “Captain, we lost,” he said. “Let’s retreat men. And start all over again!” I heaved Luffy onto the deck and sat down beside him, utterly exhausted. I just couldn’t handle any more excitement today. “Thanks for everything, Sonya-chan,” Gin said softly.

“Sure…don’t you come back again, though.”


	12. Goodbye Baratie

“Hey, Sonya-chan,” Gin said, holding the larger Don Krieg over his shoulder easily. “If he wakes up, please tell him: see you again at the Grand Line.”

I glanced down at Luffy. He was snoring loudly now, and I could swear he was still grinning despite his wide-open mouth. I turned back to Gin. “Will you continue to be a pirate?” I asked, ignoring Patty’s grumbling behind me.

“I thought about it…this is the only thing I want to do,” Gin replied despite the fact that he still wasn’t looking at me. I thought, perhaps, he might be a bit embarrassed by his admission that he couldn’t kill me even to save his own life. “It seems Captain Krieg’s dream has become my dream as well…” Suddenly he coughed and blood practically exploded from his mouth.

“Gin!” I half got up but Gin didn’t fall. He only gasped a bit.

“I might die in the next two or three hours…it might have been shameful for me to decide when I don’t have any time to live, but this is the best decision I have made. This time I will do anything I want to. But if I do that I won’t have any place to go to. Haven’t I been loyal to Krieg?” he asked before giving a slight chuckle and closing his eyes. “The truth is that I want to escape from Krieg’s power. That man taught me that if I want to do something I don’t have to worry about anything. No matter how strong your enemy is or what kind of strategy you use.”

I thought for a moment. “Patty. Carne. Bring them a shipping boat.”

“What?! Are you crazy?” Patty demanded.

“Why do you want to give the pirates who tried to rob us a shipping boat? Just let them swim!” Carne yelled at me. I sighed a bit and felt my annoyance peaking again, sometimes I really didn’t know why I put up with them…

“Besides, if we give them a boat what’ll we use?”

“Just do it!” I snapped, sending them a hard glare.

They screamed a bit and ran off, talking to each other about how they would get back at me. Something about ambushing me in the middle of the night or something. I rolled my eyes. The only person on this ship that could beat me was Zeff…and probably Luffy and Krieg but they were unconscious so they didn’t count currently. Besides, Krieg was about to be gone.

I got to my feet with a slight groan. I had never taken a beating so severe before. Hell, I had barely ever lost a fight before. Zeff had taught me early on how to defend myself and his brand of teaching was very effective. Dodging flying kitchen knifes was a very good way to improve your reflexes after all…

It didn’t take long for Patty and Carne to bring a small boat around. I ‘assisted’ Gin in getting his crewmates onto the boat. As I kicked the last one onto the pile, he turned to me. “I am going now. Thanks again, but, if I take this shipping boat I don’t think I can return it…”

“If you dare return it…I’ll beat your ass,” I threatened despite the fact that I was grinning slightly. Gin wasn’t the worst guy in the world and I could appreciate a guy who knew what he wanted. It helped that he was pretty hot on the ruggedly handsome side. Though the trying to kill me part had put a damper on things for certain.

He grinned back. “This is a very dangerous restaurant,” he stated.

“You’d better believe it, Mister,” I replied with a smirk.

“Sonya, I’ll probably never see you again…but,” Gin reached out and grabbed my tie before pulling me forward. I yelped a bit in surprise but that was quickly cut off by his hard kiss. It took a minute to register, as did the shouts of outrage from the chefs behind me.

I got my hands between us and pushed him away. “You jerk,” I said despite the fact that I hadn’t minded too terribly much. Ignoring the blood it had been a fairly decent kiss. “Get out of here before I put my heel up your ass,” I ordered.

He chuckled a bit and got onto the overcrowded shipping boat. “Thanks for everything, Sonya-chan,” he said as he pushed off from the Baratie. As he left the others shouted out threats to him but I just shook my head a bit at the insanity of it all. At least the Baratie was finally safe.

I sighed and rubbed one shoulder with my hand. “I am so beat…clean this place up…I’m gonna take a shower,” I muttered before starting towards the door to the Baratie. I paused for a minute at Luffy’s side and rolled my eyes at him again. I picked him up, wincing as it put a bit too much pressure on my wounds, and carried him inside as well.

After dropping Luffy off in a spare bedroom, I did exactly what I said I would do and went to wash the blood and feeling of salt off my skin. I took my time, mostly because I didn’t want to strain any of my wounds. It was hard as my back and ribs were already starting to bruise but I did my best.

I pulled on a large fluffy robe and went to where Luffy was sleeping. I helped Carne plaster his wounds with Band-Aids before going to my bathroom to do the same thing to myself. Most of my wounds were internal though so Band-Aids didn’t do much to help me. After that, I went to sleep.

I woke up the next morning and checked my wounds, changing a few Band-Aids that had been soaked through. I dressed in a blue Chinese styled top with a knee-length pencil skirt slit up the back seam slightly. Underneath, I was again wearing biker shorts, just because I never went without pants of some sort.

I brushed out my long blonde hair as I padded out onto the top deck without any shoes on. The Baratie was almost clear of debris. I glanced down and saw a cook pick up Luffy’s hat. “Hey,” I called. “Toss that up here,” I ordered. I caught it easily and studied the hat for a moment as my free hand but down the hairbrush and dug in my pocket for a cigarette. It didn’t look like anything special but then again neither did Luffy himself.

Putting the hat on the railing for a moment, I finally succeeded in lighting a cigarette before heading back inside. I put the hat on the side table next to Luffy and went out onto the balcony again so that my smoking wouldn’t bother him. It had already been several hours since I had said woken up but Luffy still seemed completely out cold, not that I could blame him. Suddenly, I heard a shout from behind me. “Where’s my hat?!”

“Isn’t it over there, sweetie?” I asked half glancing through the open door at him.

“Oh yeah, here it is…” he said, instantly calming down.

I sighed a bit. Cute and dense. Almost to the point of extreme. “Sorry. We’re out of bandages” I commented turning my full attention to the ocean again. I was in a very contemplative mood. My nice neat world had been turned on its head yesterday and I was still trying to sort it all out.

“I don’t want any…” he said simply. “Where did they go?”

“They left because of you,” I answered taking another drag of my cigarette. “Gin told me to tell you: I’ll see you at the Grand Line.”

“Wow! Meet you, right?” Luffy said innocently.

I gave a slight laugh at his stupidity. I had _just said_ Gin was talking about him and it still hadn’t been clear enough apparently. “No, sweetie pie, you,” I corrected gently. I turned back to the ocean and tapped a bit of ash off my cigarette.

“Oh!” Luffy said suddenly. “This will be my last day here! According to that old man’s promise.”

“Really?” I said, not very interested but keeping up the conversation to remain polite. “Congratulations.”

“How about you?” he asked coming up behind me. I could hear the eagerness in his voice.

“I won’t become a pirate,” I stated firmly but as gently as I could. “I’ll stay here and continue to be a chef at this restaurant…until the old man accepts my skill.”

I heard Luffy jump back onto his bed and I felt my collar jerk backwards, making me choke and grab at the too tight fabric. “I understand, I will give up then.”

“Then why are you grabbing my collar!?” I gasped. “Can’t breathe!”

Luffy let go and I heard his arm snap back to his body as I gasped for a full lung of oxygen. “Sorry!” he said instantly. I shook my head a bit, rubbing my neck as I did so, and bent down to find my cigarette. Luffy came over and hopped onto the railing as I straightened again. “Why won’t you leave though?” he asked. “Tell me!”

I sighed and rested my chin on my palm. “Because of my situation. I can’t leave this place. I’m a girl after all. In the North Blue…girls aren’t allowed to join crews and work on the sea. Or…they weren’t when I was growing up. We haven’t been back there in a while so that might have changed. All I’m good at is cooking and fighting…and flirting but that opens a line of jobs I will never sink to doing. Zeff doesn’t care about that though, he’s let me stay here and do what I love. But I have no family to go to if something happens. There is no one I can trust,” I explained inhaling a lung full of nicotine-laced smoke before letting it out. “But, I’ve thought about going to the Grand Line some day…”

“Then why not go now?” Luffy asked excitedly.

“It’s not the right time,” I replied simply. I still had to make Zeff realize I was just as good a chef as him, if not better. Then, I could go looking for my dream. “Hey! Have you heard of All Blue?”

“No,” Luffy replied blankly.

I grinned. I loved the chance to describe the images in my head. “I’ve heard it’s a magical sea. It has all sorts of fish from all the Blues in it. Every kind of fish you can imagine!”

“Like what?” Luffy asked, eyes growing a bit big.

“Like Giant Rainbow Perch! And Dragon Fish and Purple-Finned Salmon.” I listed off a few of the more exotic species that I had always wanted to taste but never been able to. “Any kind of fish you have ever seen! Striped and polka dot and thousands of different colors. And each one tastes better than the last! It’s heaven under water!”

“Are they big fish?”

“Huge!” I said, holding my hands apart to illustrate. After a while more of explaining in great detail the different kinds of fish that was supposed to be in All Blue, I heard a shout of it being mealtime.

“Woo! Food!!” Luffy leapt off the railing and hurried towards the cafeteria on the second floor. I laughed a bit and followed him. I loved a man who loved food. It made cooking for him a real treat. I could already hear a bit of a commotion from the cafeteria. I opened the door and saw with a bit of surprise everyone was seated quietly, which I had never seen happen. “Where’s the food?” Luffy asked.

I glanced at the table and frowned at the lack of open seats. “Eh? Hey, where are our seats?”

“There’s nowhere to sit,” A chef said casually.

“Just sit on the floor!” Another suggested with a laugh.

“Sit on the floor?” I repeated. I scowled a bit in distaste. “What kind of restaurant is this?” I didn’t get an answer and reluctantly sat down on the floor with Luffy with a tray of food, grumbling the entire time. This was _not_ the standard I was used to. I could barely believe this.

“Why are they all looking so strange?” Luffy asked glancing at the other chefs.

“They always look strange,” I supplied absently.

“Hey!” Patty suddenly shouted. “Who made this soup this morning?!”

I looked over instantly. I knew I had made it; it had been the only thing I’d been able to whip up what with being so sore from yesterday and all. But I had used one of my best recipes. “I did! Isn’t it good?” I said with a smile. “I worked real hard on it!”

The bowl slammed to the ground, splattering soup everywhere. “Its horrible! I can’t eat it!” Patty declared. “Its worse than pig’s food!”

My temper spiked at that. I _knew_ my food was good. Slowly, I got to my feet. “Hey…I don’t think your mouth is good enough for my food, Patty dear.”

“Hmph…it makes me wanna puke! It really sucks!” he said giving a large thumbs down. “I can’t eat it.”

I wanted to bash his head into the ground and I could only just hold back from doing so. “Excuse me, but today’s soup was my special recipe…I think you have a problem with your tongue, Patty-”

“Eww! Bad!” Carne said suddenly, making me even more shocked than before. Chefs quickly throwing or dumping their soup followed his statement. All saying how horrible it tasted. It wasn’t possible! It just wasn’t possible!!

“What do you think you’re doing!?” I shouted as my anger returned to cover my shock.

“After all, you are a fake chef..”

_F-fake?!_

“It’s not good and you want us to say it’s delicious?”

“W-what did you say?!” I ground out. Needles were stinging at my eyes at my severely wounded pride.

Suddenly, there was a crash of breaking china and I turned around to see Zeff wiping his mouth. “Zeff!”

“If I served that to my customers, my restaurant would go out of business. What is that tasteless soup?” he demanded pointing at the soup seeping into the floorboards.

I leapt forward grabbing him by the collar. “That’s enough, shitty geezer!” I snapped. There was no way! Just no possible way for anything I’d made to be that bad! I was a good chef! I knew it so why couldn’t they see it!? “Tell me! What’s the difference between my soup and yours?”

“Compare my soup to yours?” he ground out. Suddenly, his fist slammed across my face and I fell back with a sound of pain and surprise. Never in my life had Zeff ever punched me! “Stop dreaming!!” he ordered.

“Owner…can punch?” Patty said in shock.

“Its a hundred years too early to compare my food to yours, stupid little eggplant!” I looked up at him in shock. How could he say something like that? He knew how hard I worked. He knew I never served anything I wasn’t proud of. So…how? “I have been cooking around the world! Your food can’t compare to mine!”

I ground my teeth as the needles relentlessly attacked my eyes and I felt the need to cry. “Damn it!!” I shouted at him before running out of the room and slamming the door hard behind me. I leaned against the wall and slid down to sit on the deck. I fumbled with my cigarette case in an attempt to distract myself from the hurt of being told I wasn’t good enough.

There was muttering from the cafeteria but I was only half listening, not wanting to hear them bashing my cooking abilities anymore. “Hey kid!” My ears perked up slightly at Zeff’s voice. But then I realized he was probably talking to Luffy and not me. “Can you take that kid with you? The Grand Line has always been her dream.”

I felt myself freeze in shock. Just what was going on in there? “You shouldn’t make up a story like that, Owner!” someone said.

“Actually, we didn’t want to do that!”

“Hey! I want some more soup!” There were several shouted agreements and I realized that they had been lying to me. The jerks! They hadn’t thought my soup was bad at all!

“Hey! I can hear you, idiots!” I said but they apparently weren’t listening for me.

After a while, it settled down again but I wasn’t in the mood to be around them at the moment. I was pissed off at them and still a bit hurt that they’d lie and say my food was bad. I heard Zeff again. “Hey, Kid. Can you take Sonya with you?”

“No,” Luffy replied and I raised an eyebrow at that. He’d practically been begging me earlier.

“ **What?!** ”

“What do you mean, kid? Didn’t you say you wanted a chef? What’s wrong with Sonya?” Zeff asked and I had half a mind to shout out that there was absolutely nothing ‘wrong’ with me.

“Nothing’s wrong with her,” Luffy said, echoing my thoughts. “I want her to come with me. But she said that she wants to stay here. Even though you want me to take her…I just can’t.”

“You mean, you can’t take her with you unless she agrees,” Zeff prompted.

“Yes. Can I have some more food?”

“Well! That’s the way it is. However, I don’t think it’ll be easy for her to say she’ll go,” Zeff mused aloud. “It will be difficult, because she is a very stubborn person.”

I exhaled a long stream of smoke. Why on earth did they want me to go so much? I was an asset to this place. I’d helped make it what it was currently. How could they been so insistent when I’d already given my answer? Suddenly, I was jerked out of my thoughts when I saw a black fin streaking through the water on a direct course with the Baratie. “What the-?!”

The whatever it was burst out of the water and I heard a scream as it came flying towards me. I didn’t have a chance to move before it slammed into be, crashing both of us through the wall and into the cafeteria. I groaned a bit as the impact hurt my ribs and back even more than they were already.

“Sonya!”

“Who is that?! A mermaid!?”

“He came from Mermaid Island to eat at our restaurant?”

“Are you crazy? This is a human in a killer whale!” Someone snapped as I pulled myself out from under the wet mass of body. “Damn it…” I muttered, rubbing my ribs gingerly.

“Yosaku?” Luffy asked recognizing the man in the killer whale’s mouth.

“Luffy!” Yosaku said holding up a shaking hand in greeting.

Luffy crouched down next to him. “Why are you alone? Where are Nami and the others?”

We quickly got Yosaku out of the Killer Whale and gave him a blanket to wrap up in as he was soaked and shivering. “I only know where Nami went,” he said after he had stopped trembling so badly his teeth were clanking together.

“Then just go and get her back,” Luffy said.

“However, if I guess right, the place she went is very dangerous,” Yosaku added. “I’ll tell you more later. We need your special power, Luffy.”

“I don’t understand. But okay. Let’s go!” Luffy said getting to his feet.

“Wait,” I said from where I was leaning against the wall. If they were going somewhere dangerous I didn’t want to let them go alone. I liked Luffy. He was cute and had a certain brain-dead charm. And if Zeff was going to tell me it was alright to go so obviously then I didn’t exactly have any excuse not to. Plus, I’d get to see more of that hot semi-suicidal swordsman. “I will go too. Please, take me with you, Sweetheart.”

“Eh? Sonya…you…”

I sighed a bit and turned my head so that I could see him with my one exposed eye. “You want to become the greatest pirate, right?” I asked, despite having heard him bellyache it enough during his fight with Krieg to already answer that. “It means that we both have a crazy dream,” I said remembering how even chefs who had been to the Grand Line swore up and down All Blue didn’t exist. “I will do what I want from now on!”

I pushed off from the wall and took a few steps forward. “I will become your chef, sweetie pie. Is that okay? Do you have any problem with that?”

“ **Alright! Excellent!”** Luffy shouted throwing his arms into the air excitedly. Him and Yosaku started dancing and cheering as they headed out of the ruined door.

I chuckled a bit at their enthusiasm. “So…” I said turning towards my chef friends. Or, rather, at this point family. “Thanks for everything.”

“You don’t have to thank us,” Patty said feigning anger. “I should be the one who drives _you_ out. I never thought you’d give up so easily.”

“Stop pretending,” I said with a smirk.

“You know?!”

“Of course. I heard what you all said. It means that all of want to get rid of me. Isn’t that right, shitty geezer?” I asked glancing over at my mentor. Patty screeched but I paid him little attention.

Zeff chuckled a bit. “Right. Its as you said. I hate you, eggplant. I regret that I let a person like you live.”

I pouted a bit. “What? Oh, you’re so mean…so, we’re even now, Zeff. I will live the rest of my life my own way. And you’ll be so sorry I’ve gone you’ll despair will inspire epic poems. But I’ll never come back no matter how you beg.”

“Like I would,” he replied heading towards the stairs. “Just scram, idiot kid.”

I turned to a few of the line chefs. “Could you dears get my boat ready? I have to get my things.” I didn’t wait for a reply as I headed out of the room as well. It didn’t take me long to pack my things. I had to grab two duffle bags due to the pure number of shoes and knives I had but that was just the way things went.

After packing, I went to the dining room of the Baratie and sat down at a chair; smoking one last cigarette in the place I had grown up for so many years. I could hear Zeff’s voice easily in my head. _“For example, Sonya, no matter what these people are, thieves or fugitives…if these people pass by and want to take food from here we will fight for this restaurant. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”_

I closed my eyes and recalled the very first time I’d seen the Baratie. It had been so wonderful I didn’t fight the smile that pulled at my lips at the memory. _“This is wonderful, old man! A floating restaurant!”_

_“Yes! I’ve used all of my treasure to build it. So, from now on, we work hard.”_

_“Don’t worry! I will help you.”_

The constant battle of nicknames that took place on this ship made me sigh a bit in exasperation. I had hated being called a ‘kid’ or ‘eggplant’ and that was why he did it. I knew it was but I still let it tick me off. But he hated being called ‘old geezer’ and ‘old man’ even more. All of our arguments of my smoking made me chuckle. It all seemed so incredibly pointless now.

I remembered when he came into my room when I was thirteen and tossed me a bag of money. _“You look like a boy, kid. Get some decent clothes would you?”_ I smiled a bit at the memory. He’d funded my first shopping spree after all.

I could even remember when Patty and Carne had arrived. Such idiots. Even then. But they had looked nothing like chefs. They had looked more like punks ready to fight and drink too much alcohol.

I could distinctly remember each and every fight that had ever taken place in this dining room and it just wouldn’t be the same without them. My beating people’s faces in for disrespecting Zeff or any of the other chefs. Zeff beating people up for making me mad. Defending the Baratie from pirates. The fights made the Baratie the Baratie. It made it home. It hadn’t been easy to find a new home after my first one had been taken from me but I had and I was going to miss it terribly.

With a sigh, I snubbed out the cigarette in the nearby ashtray and got to my feet again. I couldn’t sit around and reminisce anymore. Luffy and Yosaku were waiting for me.

I swear it looked like an execution or something as I walked out onto the deck with my things. All the chefs –minus Zeff- had gathered, leaving a straight path to my ship, which had been made ready and was already holding Luffy and Yosaku. I started walking towards them silently.

About halfway to the ship, Patty and Carne suddenly jumped out, both swinging giant spoons. “All the bad things you’ve done to us!”

“Be prepared for our revenge, Sonya!”

I sidestepped and the two slammed the spoons into each other’s faces hard. I rolled my eyes and stepped around them to continue walking. Nobody said anything as I reached the boat and tossed my bags into the bottom of it. “Let’s go!”

“Don’t you want to say goodbye?” Luffy asked.

“It’s not important,” I replied. Me and the other chefs, especially Zeff, didn’t do so well with words anyway.

“Hey Sonya!” I froze at the sound of Zeff’s voice. “Take good care of yourself!”

I bit my lip to try and stop myself from crying. He’d never said anything like that to me before. Not once. He was too much of the tough love kind. I could feel the tears start to overflow from my eye and I whipped around. “ **Owner!** ” I fell to my knees and bowed, head touching the deck. “ **Thank you! Thank you for everything you’ve done for me! I’ll never forget you!”**

“You idiot!” Patty and Carne screamed, popping up from where they had fallen. “This is very sad don’t you know!?”

“Very very very sad!” Carne said between sniffs. “Very sad! Very very sad!”

I chuckled a bit at that. They were such morons. But they were my morons. My oh so loveable morons. “See you later, darlings!” I shouted as I jumped onto the boat and Yosaku pushed us off of the Baratie.

“Let’s go!” Luffy shouted.


	13. Onward Ho!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains lyrics to the song Book of Love that has been sung by quite a few people including but not limited to Peter Gabriel and The Magnetic Fields. I felt it just fit Sonya so very well. This is the only time I've included Sonya singing so far, mostly because it's hard to write that and not, in my opinion, break the flow of the story.

It took me about fifteen minutes to pull myself together but even almost an hour later Yosaku was sobbing his eyes out. I sighed a bit and leaned my head against the ship’s railing. And people said girls were emotional. I’d grown up there and I’d managed to get a hold of myself. He’d just met them a few days ago. “How long will you be crying? You should be happy,” Luffy said looking back at Yosaku from his perch on the front of the ship.

Yosaku wiped at his face. “I am very touched from departing from those Chef-Sempai!” he sobbed.

I rolled my eyes and dug into my pocket for a cigarette. “I thought you would have been through these kinds of situations before, cupcake,” I stretched my long legs out across the deck, crossing them at the ankles as I reclined against the railing. I didn’t particularly care about propriety. It was my ship after all. Zeff had given it to me so that I could make emergency food runs in case we got a customer like Luffy who ate everything set in front of him. And for just general food runs since the deck of the Baratie made it impossible to get into a lot of ports.

“I want Nami to get back to us soon so we can go to the Grand Line!” Luffy shouted as he threw his arms into the air.

I scowled a bit. “Are we sure we need her?” I muttered. I still didn’t much like the idea of traveling around with another woman. I was not the sharing type. Luffy didn’t seem to hear me though as he was yet again shouting about being the Pirate King.

“Are you sure that you want to go the Grand Line with only five people?” Yosaku asked. He seemed to finally manage to stop crying. “You will be doomed because of your underestimation of how dangerous it is.”

“I will gather more people in the Grand Line because it is a paradise!” Luffy explained.

I took a thoughtful drag from my cigarette. “Isn’t it also a pirate graveyard?” I asked through the stream of smoke that I exhaled. I was pretty sure I’d heard that one a few times.

“Before departure, Owner told me that some people called the Grand Line ‘a paradise’,” Luffy said with a huge grin that even made the small scar under his eye turn upwards in a slight smile.

“The geezer said that?” It wasn’t like Zeff to offer up bits of information without a fight. But it wasn’t like I didn’t believe him. Especially if All Blue was in the Grand Line like legends said. I grinned a bit as a new thought occurred to me. “For me everything’s okay as long as Zoro-san and you are around, Cutie Pie,” I said sending Luffy a wink.

“I think you’re dreaming, Sempai!” Yosaku shouted, jerking my attention back to him. “You know too little about the Grand Line and this time, if Zoro knew about that place, maybe he will come back with me.”

I frowned at that. “How horrible.”

“The place where Nami is heading to is a very dangerous place. You should understand this!” Yosaku continued.

I was a bit bored with this line of discussion however. In my mind, it had already been decided where we were going. Captain had already told us what was going on and that was perfectly fine by me, though I’d have loved it if we just left Nami to her own devices I supposed we did need her map-reading abilities. “You wanna eat, Cutie?” I asked.

“ **Yes**!!” Luffy shouted instantly.

“Didn’t you listen to me at all?!” Yosaku demanded. Yosaku then launched into a big long speech that I only half listened to about the Seven Pirate Shichibukai –or something- and how Mihawk, the one that Zoro had fought, was one of them. “The real problem is one of those seven pirates. Ginbei, the Captain of the Mermaid Pirates.”

“Mermaid? I’ve never seen one before,” Luffy said in that cute ‘I have no idea what’s going on’ tone he had.

I scoffed a bit. “I don’t think I’ll mind if we don’t run across them, Cutie. Weird Fish People,” I muttered, not at all liking the idea of encountering any of the legendary beautiful mermaids that I’d heard so much about. I could barely stand Nami after all.

“Ginbei left some monsters in the East Blue Sea in exchange for becoming one of the Seven Shichibukai,” Yosaku said folding his hands together and looking very serious.

“Do they look like this?” Luffy asked holding up a pad of paper with a large fish with strange things that looked vaguely like feet sticking out of it drawn on the first page.

I laughed at the utter absurdity of it. If only mermaids did look that like it would be utterly amazing! “That’s a fish not a mermaid!” I said before I lost it and started to laugh again. Luffy clearly had absolutely no drawing skills. But still, mermaids like that wouldn’t bother me at all.

“Won’t you pay attention?!” Yosaku demanded. I turned back to him, wiping the tears from my eye caused by laughing too hard. “Ok, I will not talk about history anymore,” he said as he quickly calmed down. “The place where we are heading is called ‘Arlong Park’. Arlong is the fishman pirate who is as strong as Ginbei. That place is under the control of Arlong. Talking about his strength, Don Krieg is just a joke!”

Somehow, I doubted that this Arlong guy was as strong as Ginbei. This was still the East Blue after all and the East Blue was not the strongest sea. Besides, if Arlong worked for Ginbei he couldn’t be _as_ _strong_. “How can you even know that Carrot Top is heading there?” I asked flicking a bit of ash off my cigarette. “Maybe she is heading some place else in the same direction.”

“Johnny and I had that same idea,” Yosaku admitted. “But she was always looking at the Wanted Poster with the picture of Arlong. After I told her that Arlong has begun his invasion she took the ship and the treasures. I think it must have something to do with Arlong.”

“How about this picture?” Luffy asked, holding up a picture of a fish with arms and legs instead of a tail.

I chuckled a bit. “It looks like the same fish with legs,” I told him. “I wonder…if Carrot Brains has to do business with the fishmen…maybe she’ll just swim off with them instead of joining us,” I said smiling at the thought.

“What did you say?” Luffy asked, holding up his newest picture. This time the picture had my hair on it’s head.

“Hey! Don’t give that thing my hair!”

“Don’t you understand what I just said?!” Yosaku screamed in outrage.

“You want to tell us that those mermaids are very strong, right?” Luffy guessed.

“No! It seems that you don’t get the point! Those _fishmen_ are very very strong!” Yosaku snapped at the top of his lungs.

“Well,” I said getting to my feet. “We will see about that after we arrive there.”

“Yes. Don’t you worry, Yosaku,” Luffy agreed.

“ **My story didn’t teach you anything**?!” Yosaku demanded.

I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t like worrying about it was going to change anything in the long run. We needed the Carrot Brained idiot to navigate for us, as much as I was loathe to admit it. So, we had to get her back…at least until we found someone else. “Anyway, let’s eat first. What do you dears want? Hmm?”

“ **Roast** **Beef**!!” Luffy shouted instantly.

“I want fried beans!” Yosaku added.

I chuckled a bit and turned towards the galley. “Whatever you want,” I closed the door to the galley behind me and started looking for the supplies I would need. Roast beef and fried beans wasn’t a particularly difficult meal so I figured I might as well throw a few surprises in as well.

Humming to myself, I balanced a stack of ingredients in one hand before going to the counter. It wasn’t long into slicing up the beef that I ended up adding words to my humming. I didn’t hold any illusions that I was singing particularly in tune. I was a cook not a musician. But that was part of the reason I sang only when I was alone like I was currently. Or drunk. It sounded wonderful to me but Zeff hadn’t liked my singing all that much…“The book of love is long and boring…no one can lift the damn thing.” I turned the dial on the stove to turn it on. “It’s full of charts and facts and figures and instructions for dancing.”

I let my hips move a bit to the imaginary tune as I went to get a few spices of the spice rack. “I~I I love it when you read to me and…yo~ou you can read me anything…”

I wasn’t sure where I had first heard the song but I ventured to guess it was from my mother back when she was still alive. I sprinkled a few more spices over the beef before twirling to put the spice back in its spot. “The book of love has music in it…in fact that were music comes from. Some of it’s just transcendental…some of it is just really dumb.”

I adjusted the temperature slightly so that the beans would be done at the same time as the beef. “But I~I I love it when you sing to me…and yo~ou you can sing me anything…”

As I waited for things to reach the next stage, I took the moment to dance (probably very badly) across the room to get some milk from the refrigerator. This was my favorite way to cook things. Having fun while doing it made things taste a hell of a lot better in my opinion. A lot of times I didn’t have time to because I had to cook way too much as fast as I could without messing it up but I still enjoyed it. “The book of love is long and boring and written very long ago…It’s full of flowers and heart shaped boxes and things we’re all to young to know…”

“But I~I I love it when you give me things and yo~ou you oughta give me wedding rings. Cause I~I I love it when you give me things and yo~ou you oughta give me wedding riiiings…” I pulled another pan across the burners as I finished the song and immediately launched into another. Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember all the words of this one and ended up making a few lyrics up on the fly. None of which made all that much sense but I didn’t particularly care.

“Soooonyaa!! I’m hungry!” Luffy called from outside.

“Hold on, Sweetie Pie!” I called back. “I’m making it as fast as I can.”

After several more songs, some of which were almost completely made up since I couldn’t remember all of the lyrics, I slid the beef onto the serving plate that I had already lined with a few pieces of garnish. I went back to humming as I checked the taste of the beans one last time. It was perfect. “Sweetheart! Can you put the table up out there?” I asked.

I heard the clatter of Luffy setting it up and then him shouting for food. I chuckled a bit as I grabbed the plates and slid out of the galley with them. I set them on the table and sat down, even as Luffy was stuffing the first piece of meat into his mouth whole. “Eat slower, Sweetie. It’s not going anywhere,” I said taking a piece off the serving tray as well. I had made far too much food for just three people, but I had gotten a bit carried away. I had no doubts that Luffy would be able to finish any leftovers though.

Suddenly, there was a rumbling and I looked up curiously to see what it was. I blinked in surprise. “Huge…” Yosaku was screaming in absolute fright. A giant cow was next to us, with scales on its chest and flippers instead of hoofs. Just its head was as big as my boat.

“ **Monster**!” Yosaku screeched.

“What a big cow!” Luffy said staring up at it with wide eyes.

“I didn’t know cows could swim…maybe it’s a hippo…” I mused taking a drag of my cigarette.

“Why is a monster like this appearing in East Blue? That’s unbelievable!!” Yosaku yelled. The cow sniffed the boat curiously and Yosaku freaked out even more. “It’s a Grand Line Monster!”

The cow lowered its head until its eye was level with our heads. “He’s looking at the food!” Yosaku yelled, pointing at the food I’d made.

“What did you say?” Luffy asked in outrage.

“Hand the food to him, otherwise he’ll sink our ship!!” Yosaku’s screaming was really starting to annoy me. Suddenly, Luffy lashed out with a hard punch, sending the cow careening off to one side. Huge waves rocked the boat as the cow fell into the sea again.

“Don’t mess with my food!” Luffy ordered.

“You are so great, Luffy-Sempai!!” The cow didn’t seem to think so as he straightened and let out a huge, angry, moo and showing sharp teeth. I raised an eyebrow at that. Weren’t cows vegetarians? “He’s getting angry!” Yosaku warned.

“I will hit him one more time,” Luffy said bringing his arm back.

“Hey!” I said putting a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t be so selfish, Sweetie. Can’t you see that he is hungry? Why do you want to hurt him?” I pushed past them to step closer to the giant cow. “I think he is sick, so he can’t find food by himself. Am I right?” I asked the cow.

He let out a low moo and I smiled. “Poor thing. Here! Eat this food,” I said holding up a plate of food. He instantly took the food and moo-ed in pleasure. “Aww, you’re not half bad for a fishy cow-thing,” I crooned petting its giant nose. “But we need to eat too okay? How about I make you something later?”

The cow mooed again and sunk back into the sea. “Let’s continue eating!” Luffy shouted already sitting down at the table again.

“It’s a very good way to kill time,” I commented sitting down in my own seat.

It didn’t take very long for us to finish the food I had already prepared. Luffy was like a human bottomless pit. He didn’t seem to notice the sheer amount of food he was consuming. Being the chef for him was definitely going to be a full time job if this was how he ate on a regular basis.

The sea cow resurfaced and moo-ed, causing me to smile slightly. It had its flippers poised in a way that made me think of a dog begging at the table. “You want your food now?” I asked and the cow nodded. “Well, hold on a minute and I’ll get you some,” I said going back into the kitchen.

I found a rather large fish in the icebox and grilled it up whole before taking it back outside and tossing it to the sea cow. It swallowed the fish whole and gulped loudly. “Moo! Moo! MOOOO!” He flapped his flippers happily and I smiled even wider before flicking my cigarette off to the side.

“Hey wanna help us out some?” I asked and the cow nodded. “We’re trying to get to Arlong Park. Know where that is?” Another nod. “Take us there?”

“Mooo!”

I threw a rope over both of the sea cow’s horns and the huge animal took off instantly. We all nearly fell at the sudden jerk of speed. “Wooo!! This is so fun!” Luffy shouted throwing his arms up.

“This monster is fast!” Yosaku added holding tightly to the railing.

“That’s what good food does,” I said with a wink. “Gives you lots of energy! Isn’t that right, cow?”

“Moooo!”

With the cow pulling us along what should have been a rather long trip was reduced to a fraction of the time. In what only seemed like a few minutes Luffy was jumping around excitedly. “I see Arlong Park!” he said pointing at a tiered tower in the distance.

But the cow didn’t slow down. Or turn. “H-hey! You’re going past it!” I said as we streaked by at full speed. “Turn around!”

“We’re going to hit the cliff!!” Yosaku cried in anguish.

The cow collided with the cliff and stopped dead, but the boat didn’t. I grabbed the railing as we soared through the air. Luffy, the idiot, was throwing his arms up as if it was a ride at an amusement park. “Yahoo!! We’re flying!”

“This isn’t funny!!” I snapped as trees zipped past beneath us.

“ **MAYDAY! MAYDAY!!** ” Yosaku screamed as he clung to the mast.

Slowly the ship started to fall, aiming straight for the trees. I screamed as a particularly large palm tree loomed up in front of us. “We’re falling into the forest!” We slammed hard against the ground, jarring all the teeth in my head.

“Wow! We are on the floor now!” Luffy stated.

“But our ship isn’t stopping!” I reminded as we slid through the forest at high speeds. My ship was probably toast after this wonderful landing. I could hear wood being ripped off of the bottom and sides. “There! The trees are ending!” I said pointing to where light was peaking through the tree trunks.

Finally, the ship slammed through the last of the trees however a certain green-haired hunk was in the way. “Hey! Zoro!” Luffy shouted.

“ **Sempai**!” Yosaku screamed.

“Luffy!” Zoro managed to say before the ship barreled into him and kept going.

When we finally stopped sliding the ship was nothing but broken up wood and we were quite a ways away from where we’d hit Zoro. “What the hell are you playing at?!” Zoro demanded rubbing his head. Blood was seeping from one temple but he otherwise looked unhurt. Impressive really.

“We’re not playing. We came to take Nami back with us,” Luffy said brushing himself off. “Did you find her? Where’re Usopp and Johnny?”

I heard a groan and looked over to see Yosaku headfirst in a pile of debris. “Hey! Are you okay, love?” I asked brushing a bit of dirt off myself as well.

“Speaking of Usopp, I have to hurry now,” Zoro said wiping his face and starting to run again.

“Eh? What happened?” Luffy asked.

“Arlong has captured him. If we don’t hurry, he will be killed!”

“He was already killed!” someone interrupted.

Everyone looked over to see Johnny standing in the ripped up track we had left behind us. “You are too late. Usopp-sempai was killed by Nami-sempai!” he announced.

To say I was a bit surprised would be an understatement. I might not like the Carrot-Headed Witch but I hadn’t thought her quite _that_ bad. “Say that again!!” Luffy demanded. “If you don’t tell me the truth I will beat you up!!”

“Stop it, Luffy! It’s not Johnny’s fault,” I reasoned, trying to pull the captain off of the unfortunate man.

“Then why did he say such a stupid thing?!” Luffy demanded. “ **Nami would never kill Usopp! We are friends!** ”

“I don’t care if you don’t believe me, but I saw it with my own eyes!” Johnny replied angrily. He wasn’t nearly as angry as Luffy was though.

“Who is your friend, Luffy?”

We all turned at once again a new voice. “Nami?” Luffy asked looking up. He let go of Johnny and straightened. Nami was standing there with a bo staff and blood quite literally on her hand.

“What are you doing here?” she asked taking a few steps closer.

“Why are you asking? You are my friend, so I came to take you with us,” Luffy said as if it were perfectly obvious, which to someone as dense as him it probably seemed to be.

Nami crossed her arms, looking distinctly unimpressed. “You give me such a headache.” I narrowed my eyes; Carrot Head was really getting on my nerves. “Friend? Don’t make me laugh. All you need is just someone who can give you a hand, am I right?”

“Tch, I say you forget her, Luffy,” I said flicking my lighter so that I could light my newest cigarette.

“Don’t make things more complicated!” Zoro snapped.

“How am I making things complicated?” I demanded. I wanted to drop the bitch.

“I told you that this is an evil hearted woman!” Johnny shouted suddenly. “In order to get all the treasure underneath her hometown, she joined Arlong and is willing to kill anyone!” he accused pointing at Nami.


	14. Nami's Past

“She is a cold-blooded witch!” Johnny screamed. “All of you have been tricked by her! I saw her kill Usopp-sempai with my own eyes!”

“So what?” Nami asked simply. “You want to seek revenge and kill me?”

“What did you say?” Johnny demanded angrily. I could agree. Treating cold-blooded murder like it was nothing serious was more than a little maddening. And I didn’t really like Carrot Brains anyway so it probably didn’t help my temper much.

Nami sighed a bit and unfolded her arms. “Let me tell you something. Now, Arlong really wants to kill Roronoa Zoro and his friends because Zoro has upset him! Even though you are as strong as the devil, you can’t compare your strength to real devils!”

“Never mind about that. Where is Usopp?” Zoro asked.

“Why don’t you look for him at the bottom of the sea?” Nami suggested.

Instantly, Zoro’s temper snapped. “Watch your mouth!” he shouted rushing forward.

I quickly cut in front of him, throwing my leg out wide but nowhere near fast enough to actually hit him. Especially since he dodged. “Hey! Where’s your manners?!” I demanded. “Let me kick her ass first!”

“What?” Zoro asked still clearly pissed, but now I wasn’t sure if it was directed at Nami or me. “You better get out of my way. It’s none of your business.”

“Hey, Sweetheart, I’m just trying to make this fight a bit more fair. Carrot for Brains would stand a chance against you. There’s no need to snap at me,” I said with a slight grin.

“Huh?” he said looking lost. “Hey! Watch your mouth! Otherwise, you can lose your head!” he threatened bring the sword to cross my neck.

I pouted a bit. “Now, now, it’s not nice to threaten a lady like me. Besides, I’m not like Carrot Head over there. I don’t go down without a fight,” I said smirking slightly before taking a drag from my cigarette. It wasn’t often a guy was resistant to my charms. Somehow, it just made the flirting more exciting if Zoro wasn’t going to let me get away with it. Maybe I had a masochistic streak I hadn’t known about…

“Hey! You shouldn’t fight each other in a situation like this!” Yosaku snapped.

“Yes! If you want to fight, just get off of this island! I don’t want outsiders to waste their lives here,” Nami said folding her arms again, bo staff still at the ready in her hand. “Don’t you understand? The reason I befriended you was for your money! And now you don’t have anything, so I don’t have to care about you anymore. I will return your ship to you. Just get out of here and find a new navigator or One Piece or whatever you want to do!”

“Bitch,” I muttered as Zoro snapped at her loudly.

Nami didn’t look particularly moved however. “Goodbye,” she said resolutely.

“Nami,” Luffy said. Suddenly, Luffy collapsed backwards to land on his back.

“Hey! Luffy-sempai!” Johnny cried reaching out slightly but not moving from his spot a few feet away.

Luffy moved to rest his head on his hands. “I am going to sleep here,” he stated, closing his eyes.

“Sleep?! At a time like this?!” Johnny and Yosaku shouted in unison.

I sighed exasperatedly, unable to stop myself from doing so. “Muffin! You can’t sleep in the middle of the street like that!”

“I’ve never thought of getting off of this island,” Luffy stated, still not opening his eyes. “And I don’t care about what happens here. Besides, I feel a little sleepy now. I will sleep now,” he said.

I heard Zoro slap his forehead and I felt the urge to do the same. “ **Stop playing around! You will get killed!** ” Nami shouted.

“I thought you didn’t care about us,” I said casting Nami a slight glare.

Before she could reply though, Johnny started talking. “All of you are very strange! What that witch said is right! Usopp-sempai has already died!”

“Besides, Arlong is looking for you,” Yosaku added. “There is no reason to stay on this island, and I believe in Johnny’s word.”

“It’s been very nice knowing you, even though it was a very short time. We’re gonna get going now because we don’t want to be killed by Arlong,” Johnny finished. Zoro just muttered a noncommittal understanding as they started to walk away. “I hope to see you again! Goodbye! You are already strong! Take care!” They called as they walked down the road.

“You too,” Zoro said not bothering to wave like they were doing.

Nami huffed in anger before abruptly turning on heel. “Fine! See if I care if you get gutted or not!” she hissed as she stormed off. I scoffed a bit and rolled my eyes. Just because she was weak didn’t mean all of us were weak too.

A faint snore rose and I looked back over at Luffy. He seemed sound asleep. I sighed and figured I could just leave him lying on the road alone. “Cutie Pie, you sure are troublesome some times,” I muttered going to sit off to the side of the road against a tree trunk. Eventually, Zoro sat down in the road itself, his single katana propped against his shoulder.

Minutes ticked past as I drew another long drag from my cigarette. I glanced over at Zoro. He was wearing a strangely patterned shirt open showing off nicely sculpted Pecs and a covering of bandages over the rest of his torso. It was a pity really. I’d have liked to see those muscles…

The silence was a bit deafening and I decided after a while to try and strike up a friendly conversation. “Hey, handsome?”

“Huh?” Zoro looked over and I smiled a bit that he’d actually responded to me calling him handsome.

“You think Carrot Head really killed Usopp?" 

Zoro scoffed a bit. “Maybe. Even though she is small, she once beat me up. Maybe she’s already killed Usopp.”

At first, my thought was a curse against Nami for daring to hurt Zoro but then my brain registered the rest of what he’d said. _Small_. “Small?” I asked as my brain churned. Nami was almost as tall as me, which meant that he must have… “ **You shouldn’t be staring at women’s breasts!”** I screamed throwing my heel towards his head as my temper snapped. Well, not anyone's but mine!

His sword came up instantly. “Do you only think of pervy shit?!”

“ **UGH!** ” Something squished between my steel heel and Zoro’s katana sheath.

“Eh?” My eyes widened at the smashed face between us. Zoro had a similar reaction of surprise.

“I’m alive…” I heard a small version of Usopp’s voice say. “But, maybe I’ll really die this time.”

I lowered my leg and Zoro lowered his sword as Usopp collapsed to the ground. However, the slam seemed to wake Luffy up. He blinked as he stretched before seeing Usopp. “ **Usopp**!” he cried running over to the other boy. “Did Nami do this to you!?”

“No, Muffin,” I said with a slight laugh of embarrassment. “That was our fault.”

“More like your fault,” Zoro corrected. 

I rubbed the back of my head slightly as my embarrassment doubled. I really needed to learn how to control my temper better. “Luffy! You’re here too!” Usopp said finally coming around enough to see who was shaking him.

“Yep!” Luffy said with a smile.

I leaned forward to look around Luffy and so that Usopp could see me. “I also came. Hi!” I said waving slightly.

“You kicked me in the head!!” he screeched.

I looked away slightly. “Yeah…sorry about that. I didn’t mean to!” I said trying to charm my way out of his anger. He wasn’t all that cute but that didn’t mean I wanted him pissed at me.

“Anyway!” he said looking away from me. I smiled at the change in topic, looked like I was off the hook. “The problem is Nami! She is the one who saved me. I think there must be some reason that she joined those fishmen.”

“It’s hopeless!” someone said and we all turned to see who it was. “There’s nothing you can do to change Arlong’s system.”

“Nojiko,” Usopp said sounding a bit surprised.

Nojiko was a girl with short blue hair held back by a thin red ribbon and a tattoo over one arm and across her collarbones. “Who’s that?” Luffy asked Usopp as he pointed to her.

“Nami’s elder sister,” Usopp answered.

I scowled. Of course it was Nami’s sister! Stupid pretty girls with their tight tank tops and flirty tattoos of hearts and ribbons in their stupid blue hair…

“What do you mean by that?” Zoro asked as I grumbled to myself.

“Please! Don’t get involved with our business!” Nojiko said hands on her stupid curvy hips. “I will tell you everything if you leave this island.”

“I don’t want to listen to that because I don’t care about her past,” Luffy stated. Suddenly, he started walking down the road. “I am going to take a walk.”

“Take a walk?” Usopp echoed. “You don’t want to know about her past?”

“No, I don’t,” he said not even pausing in his stride.

“He-”

“Don’t worry about him,” Zoro told the stupid blue haired…stupid girl. “That’s the way he is,” he added with a smirk that sent a shiver down my spine. He was just deadly handsome when he did that. “Tell us. We’ll listen. However, nothing is gonna change.”

Within an instant of him saying that he started snoring loudly, clearly asleep. I laughed a bit but the others seemed less amused. “Then why are you sleeping?” Nojiko asked.

“You told her that you’d listen, but you fall asleep before she even begins!?” Usopp yelled, though it failed to wake him up or even break his snoring. “I will listen to you,” Usopp said firmly.

I sighed a bit “Yeah, I guess I will too,” I said, though really I was just trying to be polite. Carrot Brain’s past didn’t really interest me.

Nojiko sighed. “That’s why these people give Nami such a headache,” she muttered before launching into a long story about Nami’s past. Apparently, her dream was to make a complete map of the world. Nojiko told us that their family: Nami, Nojiko, and their foster mother Bell-mère, were very poor and couldn’t even afford to feed all of them sometimes. This got an immediate pang of sympathy from me. Starving was bad enough but starving because of lack of money was even worse. Due to lack of money, Nami also resorted to simply stealing what she wanted as did Nojiko apparently.

‘ _Wonderful. Two thieves_ ,’ I thought sourly.

Nojiko continued with her story. When Arlong came he claimed the entire village as his. Then charged people a fee if they wanted to survive. The fee would have to be paid every month. But their family was again too poor to pay the fee. They could only pay for either both kids or Bell-mère. The villagers had wanted to save them all by sending Nojiko and Nami away and paying for Bell-mère but instead Bell-mère did the opposite. She paid for Nojiko and Nami and not herself. The villagers attempted to help but were beaten down and Bell-mère ended up being killed by Arlong.

I thought at first that had been the end of the story but Nojiko kept going. Arlong found out about Nami’s map-making hobby and decided to take her. She ended up joining Arlong to protect the village. She made a deal that she’d be able to buy the village for a hundred million belli in return for joining Arlong’s crew as a mapmaker. “Since that day eight years ago, that girl has never cried again, and she’s never asked anyone for help. Because she doesn’t want to die like our Mother. Since she was ten years old, Nami decided to fight alone in that situation. Have you realized how much pain she has been going through?” Nojiko asked.

“Because it was the only way to save the village, she decided to join the people who killed her Mother,” Usopp summed up rubbing his nose with a look of anger.

I blew out a long stream of smoke. “Damn. Guess that means we should forgive her for being a bitch to us, huh? Probably gonna have to bail her out of this too.” Suddenly Nojiko slammed her fist across my head, catching me completely by surprise. “Ow! What the hell was that for!?”

“I came here to tell you not to do anything stupid,” Nojiko said. “If you get involved with her, you will make those fishmen suspicious of Nami and her plan for the past eight years will be ruined! So, I want you to not create any more trouble and stop hurting her feelings.”

“Well, whether we leave the island or get involved is completely up to our cutie of a Captain,” I replied. “So you’ll have to talk to him about it, but I guarantee that he won’t just leave and let Carrot Head fight Arlong on her own. That’s not his style and I haven’t even known him that long.”

Usopp nodded beside me. “It’s true. It’s true. That’s just how Luffy is.”

“Hmph,” Nojiko said folding her arms across her chest. “What frustrating people,” she muttered. “I’ll just go find Nami then. Maybe she can figure out how to talk some sense into you,” she said turning and walking back down the road.

“I highly doubt it!” I called after her.

Usopp frowned a bit. “What a stubborn girl.”

“Che, yeah,” I agreed.

Just then, there was a loud yawn from behind us and I turned to see Zoro rubbing his eyes. “Wha’ happened?”

“Morning, handsome,” I greeted with a bright smile. “Nothing’s really happened, don’t worry. Carrot Head is apparently being used as a map maker by the pirates who killed her mother in return for being able to buy the village they took for a hundred million belli,” I explained.

Zoro grunted. “I guess we’d better find Luffy then.”

I sighed and nodded in agreement. He’d most likely want to do something about this. He had that charming fierce protectiveness thing going on, though why he wasted any of it on Carrot Brains I suppose I’ll never understand. “Where do you think he is?” I asked getting to my feet and brushing the dirt off my skirt.

“Beats me,” Zoro replied heading down the road aimlessly.

Before too terribly long we ended up in a village. Nobody seemed around but spotted Nami in the distance with blood streaming down her arm and a bloody dagger raised, Luffy holding it still. “You don’t know anything!” she shouted dropping the dagger. Zoro frowned and sat down on a nearby short wall, apparently to wait. Luffy said something I couldn’t hear and she grabbed a handful of dirt before flinging it back at him. “I told you to get off of this island!”

There were a few more moments where they said a few things that I couldn’t quite make out. Suddenly Luffy put his hat on her head and jumped over to land in front of her. Then, I heard a familiar voice scream. “ **SURELY. I WILL HELP YOU!!** ”

I turned in the direction he was walking, knowing that he’d need our help for this particular headstrong idea. I took a drag from my cigarette, as his footsteps got closer. “Let’s go!” he said in a fully serious and kinda hot voice. Man, why couldn’t he be this serious all the time?

“Yeah,” We agreed as he finally reached where we were waiting.


	15. Partner Up!

It didn’t take more than a minute for Luffy to run up ahead of us on his way to Arlong Park. I sighed a bit at the trail of dust he left behind him. “He’s gonna kill every one of the bastards before we get there,” I grumbled as I lit another of my favorite King Ground cigarettes.

“We’d better hurry then,” Zoro said causally. “Wouldn’t want Luffy to have all the fun,” he added as he turned down one fork in the road.

“Love Muffin…you’re going the wrong way,” I said a little put off that he’d turn in almost the complete opposite direction as Arlong Park. “Arlong Park’s this way,” I added pointing to the correct path.

“Yeah! There’s even a sign right here!” Usopp added pointing to the large sign that read ‘Arlong Park’ with an arrow pointing down the road.

Zoro turned bright red and almost stormed off down the road muttering something that I couldn’t hear but sounded like a string of curses that almost put my skills to shame. I raised my cigarette to my mouth to hide my smile. He was so…adorable -for lack of a better word- when he was embarrassed. I’d have to embarrass him more so that I could see that blush again.

“Ah, there it is!” Usopp said pointing up ahead to where there was a large group of people staring through a hole in the wall.

“We should hurry then,” I said picking up the pace a bit. Zoro kept up with me but I noticed that Usopp most certainly did not, mumbling something about ‘Fishmen-itis’ acting up.

Just as I was climbing through the hole in the gate I saw several fishmen rushing Luffy where he was standing underneath of an overhang. I moved quickly, swinging my leg out in a wide circle so that all of them went flying. “Weaklings are not allowed to interrupt!” I snapped at them before taking a few more steps to get next to Luffy. “Cutie…why didn’t you wait for us?”

“I’ve never lost to anyone,” he said simply.

I sighed exasperatedly. “I know but you can’t be that selfish…we wanna have fun too, ya know,” I said with a slight pout. “We wanna beat up the assholes too.”

“Oh really?” he asked sounding only slightly surprised.

The fishmen broke into muttering. Several seemed to recognize Zoro and a few recognized Usopp. That made me frown a bit but since I had been too busy sailing through the air and crashing into the forest I guessed they wouldn’t have recognized me. Rather sad actually… I felt so left out.

“So, you really want Nami in the first place,” Arlong mused.

“Eh, sort of a necessity…” I muttered.

Arlong burst into a round of laughter but I don’t think it had anything to do with what I’d said. “You’re just pieces of crap! What can you do?” he demanded still laughing loudly.

Suddenly, an Octopus fishman stepped forward. “You’re not even worthy enough to fight Arlong-San! I will make all of you become my pet’s meal!” He grabbed his mouth so that it was even more like a trumpet. “Show yourself my powerful fighter!!” he shouted into the air.

There was a rumbling and the water started to bubble as something rose from it. “What is that?!” Usopp screeched in horror. “Is it the Grand Line Monster that destroyed Goza’s village?”

“Show yourself, Mohmoo!” The octopus yelled as the water burst upwards and a giant creature surfaced.

“Moo…” The Sea Cow that I had fed surfaced a large bump on its head…probably from running headfirst into the rock wall of the cliff.

I smiled a bit but Usopp was freaking out even worse. “Here comes the monster!”

Mohmoo caught sight of Luffy and me and straightened a bit. “Aww, poor baby…look at that bump,” I cooed taking a step forward. Mohmoo moo-ed and leaned closer so that I could pet his giant nose. “I told you to slow down but you didn’t listen.”

“Mohmoo!! What are you doing?!” the fishman screamed.

“Oh hush,” I snapped before patting Mohmoo again. “Why don’t you go back under and get some rest. We can handle everything up here.”

“Mooooo~” Mohmoo turned and started going back under the water instantly.

“Stop, Mohmoo! Where are you going!?” The octopus demanded.

“Mohmoo. What are you doing?” Arlong asked in a dark voice. Mohmoo froze in place. “Okay, if you really want to leave, I won’t stop you. Just go, Mohmoo.”

The sea cow jerked slightly. Suddenly, he swung around roaring in pure rage. Apparently, whatever Arlong said had triggered something…bad. The rest of the fishmen took the chance to rush us as well. I heard Zoro’s sword click out from the sheath and I shifted my weight with a small smile. Like they could really take us on with a stupid frontal rush like that…

“Leave this to me. I will take care of them all,” Luffy said practically radiating rage. His entire body was trembling with it and his eyes were angry than I had seen before, even when Zoro had been sliced almost in two he hadn’t been this angry. He lifted one foot and slammed it into the ground. He then did the same with the other foot so that he was solidly in the ground.

I was a bit confused and slightly concerned. “What is he doing?” I asked nervously.

Zoro put a hand to his chin in thought. “I have a bad feeling about this…”

Luffy started spinning; slamming his fists into anything that got too close and winding his body up like a rubber band in the process. Once he was fully wound up, he reached out and grabbed Mohmoo by the horns. My eyes widened in disbelief. He couldn’t be thinking of doing what I thought he was doing…

“Let’s get out of here!” Usopp yelled running as fast as he could.

“Eh? What’s he doing!?” I asked hoping desperately that I was wrong.

“I don’t know!” Zoro snapped.

“Gum Gum **Windmill**!!” Luffy shouted flinging Mohmoo around him in a circle and taking out every fishman in the area (forcing us to quickly dodge) before tossing Mohmoo into the distance. “I don’t want to fight these weaklings the only person that I want to beat up is **you**!!” he shouted pointing at Arlong.

“That’s great because I was just thinking about killing you too,” Arlong said with that shark-like grin of his.

“It seems that we have to get involved too,” a large stingray fishman with elbows like fins grumbled.

“How could you do that to my friends!?” the octopus demanded with the other just scoffed and said something about the difference between species. I wasn’t paying attention due mostly to yelling at Luffy for –yet again- nearly killing me. Strange, I never came near death during fights before I met him…

“That was dangerous, Luffy!!”

The ray fishman glanced over at Arlong. “Arlong-san, you can just take a seat and relax.”

“If we let you do anything, chu, Arlong Park would be destroyed,” the last one, some sort of blowfish or something, added.

“Take this…Dark Power…” The octopus bowed low arms in front of his chest.

“What is that octopus doing?” Zoro asked with an eyebrow raised…very sexily, I might add.

I sighed slightly. “Well, first you have to boil the octopus, then slice it into pieces. Eat it with my special sauce and it will be a very good appetizer,” I recited as I took another drag from my cigarette.

“ **Black Ink**!!”

A stream of ink came shooting towards us and I jumped to the side, hand-springing so that I didn’t land face first at the suddenness of the dodge. Zoro also dodged but…surprise surprise…our lovely captain didn’t manage to do that… “Idiot! Why didn’t you step away?” Zoro asked.

“Ahh! I can’t see anything!” Luffy cried, rubbing at his blackened face to try and get all of the black ink off out of his eyes.

The octopus grabbed a huge piece of debris and started coming closer to Luffy. “Luffy! Get out of there!” Usopp yelled.

“How can I do that when I can’t see?” he asked back. “I can’t move my legs, and I can’t see,” he added and I realized that he had managed to get himself stuck when he planted himself a few minutes earlier.

I sighed in agitation. Usopp yelled something but I was more distracted by the giant piece of concrete the octopus was slamming down towards Luffy. I ran forward and got in front of Luffy just as the rock came slamming down. I launched my foot upwards and shattered it with the power of my kick and the steel heel of my boot. Luckily, I was wearing shorts under my skirt because this particular kick was not very decent due to being essentially a vertical split. “Jeeze, I would have to follow the craziest Captain in the whole world,” I muttered as the rock broke around us.

“That’s exactly what I’m thinking,” Zoro agreed.

“But still, you’re a million times cuter than these fish-bastards,” I said with a bit of a smirk. If throwing pieces of rock around was the extent of their abilities then this fight wasn’t going to be particularly hard at all. My fighting style was developed to go with the movement of a sea deck; solid ground would make things even easier.

“You are just a human with a little skill,” the ray one said. “I never thought that pirates would become heroes. Anyway, you are nothing compared to us.”

“Oh?” Behind me I could hear Usopp trying to get Luffy undone from his little self-made trap. Unfortunately, pulling on rubber didn’t tend to do much. I put them out of my mind in favor of the fishmen in front of me. “Nothing am I? I don’t give a damn about what you think, asshole. Even though I look so sophisticated and well-mannered I was raised by pirates.”

“It seems that you still don’t realize the real level of the fishmen species,” the ray replied still looking unimpressed.

“You mean sea level?” I quipped.

The octopus got ready to throw another piece of rubble at Luffy and Usopp but Zoro got behind him. “Hey, Squidy! Can’t you see that they’re busy?” he asked. “Why don’t you come and play with me?”

“That’s right! Roronoa Zoro! I totally forgot about you!” Octopus said angrily. “You dare trick me?” He slammed the piece of rubble to the ground where Zoro had been standing before jumping out of the way. “And you are the one who hurt all of my friends!”

“Stop talking about the past. I don’t care about why you want to kill me. The situation has changed!” Zoro said. “You are not the ones who can defeat us, but we are the people who will beat all of you up!” I smiled. ‘ _Be still my heart,_ ’ I thought. If Zoro kept acting so damn sexy I’d have to jump him damned be the consequences.

Suddenly, Luffy went zipping past and slammed into the last fishman before snapping back into the same place as before. “I came back to the same place,” he stated simply. The fishman took off after Usopp who had been the one to let Luffy go and both of them were quickly out of sight, Usopp screaming all the way.

My attention didn’t linger on them for long though. Arlong had gotten to his feet. “I’m not going to do anything I just want to say something,” he assured the stingray type.

Luffy brought his arm back. “You will be crushed by me!” he shouted launching his fist towards Arlong with the force of a bullet.

Unfortunately, Arlong caught it. “You really think that you can beat us up?”

“So, what if we do?” I asked with a smile before taking a quick drag of my cigarette and blowing out a stream of smoke.

“I must think that I can, moron!” Luffy shouted angrily. “Release my hand now!”

“So, what do you want to say?” Zoro asked casually.

“It’s not necessary anymore,” Arlong said before kneeling down in front of Luffy and jamming his hands into the rock. Oh, that didn’t look good. Especially a second later when he hoisted Luffy and the piece of rock above his head. “Why don’t we play a game?”

“Ahh! What are you doing?!” Luffy cried.

“A person who has a power from a Devil Fruit won’t be able to swim. But in a situation like this, even a normal person can’t do anything!” Arlong stated before laughing like a lunatic.

Oh. Shit.

Before I could make a move, there was a splash and Luffy sank like the rock he was embedded in. “You, bastard!” I shouted. “We have to help him.” I took all of two steps towards the edge before Zoro grabbed my arm.

“Wait a minute!” Zoro snapped. “Don’t be tricked by them. If we go down there, we will fall into their trap. There is only one way to help Luffy.”

“Beat them up and then help him, right?” I finished for him. “Handsome and smart. I like that.”

“Let’s just get this done!” he snapped unsheathing his remaining sword.

“Alright alright. I’ll just fix you something special for dinner.” 


	16. Sonya vs Kuroobi

‘ _I wonder how he controls that mouth enough to laugh…_ ’ I thought sardonically as the squid berated our eardrums with laughter. Come to think of it…how did he control it enough to talk? There weren’t that many muscles that could assist with his trumpet-like face. But that was probably something to think about at another time as Luffy was steadily sinking into the sea. “That’s a dirty trick you rotten fish!” I snapped as the squid laughed.

“Heh… you don’t have to hurry. All of you will die anyway,” Kuroobi, the ray, said with a smirk.

Arlong was laughing from his seat, apparently very amused by this whole thing. “Can’t breath underwater? What a weak species you are!”

“At least we don’t look like mutated entrees,” I snapped as Zoro rushed forward with his only remaining sword. I glanced over to see him dodge some more of that black ink and then cut off a big chunk of the squid’s hair.

I scowled darkly when I saw the state the green-haired hunk was in. That small amount of action was making him sweat. He was in no condition for this. Suddenly, a finned elbow came flying at my head and I bent backwards to avoid it, wincing slightly as my still bruised back was strained. “You’ll lose your life if you look the other way.”

“Lose my life?” I echoed as I shifted my weight. “You’re just a fish! Fish shouldn’t dare insult a chef!”

I took several quick steps back to rebalance myself but turned sharply when I heard a thud and the clattering of a sword hitting the ground behind me. “What?” My eyes widened at the sight of Zoro barely maintaining his balance on his knees. “Zoro! It must be the injury from Hawk Eyes!” I realized as the squid jumped down from his perch to land next to Zoro.

The pillar behind them started to crack and shift. “Just break and fall onto Roronoa Zoro’s body!” The six-armed idiot shouted at the pillar.

Suddenly, Zoro moved so that he was standing behind his opponent. He flung the squid back and took several steps forward. “Why don’t you just take it yourself?” Then he promptly fell face first to the ground. “Damn it! Why now?”

“That’s why he was looking so pained…” I muttered. “Why is he still acting like nothing happened? That’s crazy.” It was impressive sure and showed how amazingly strong he was but I’d prefer my new favorite swordsman to not push himself until he died. Suddenly, a huge force slammed into my stomach knocking all the air out of my body and sending me flying backwards.

“I am a fishman with a level forty karate! I told you not to look the other way!”

I felt myself break through the stone wall and skid across the ground a few times like a skipping stone before I finally came to a stop. I closed my eyes as my back screamed in outrage at being abused again so soon. I heard people calling me but I wasn’t in a particular mood to answer at the moment. My ribs were screaming almost as loud as my back. Why do these idiot’s keep focusing on my torso? Just because it was amazingly shapely didn’t give them the right to hit me there. I had other parts to my body. Why couldn’t they focus on my legs or something? I didn’t care if those were sore.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a cigarette and held it between my lips before digging for my lighter. It was missing though and all I had was a few matches that would have to do. I lit it and took a few puffs of my cigarette before pocketing the matches and slowly pushing myself to my feet. Sure, I was sore but nothing was broken… worse than before, at least. Though there was a bit of blood streaming down my face from where I’d hit the wall. That was annoying.

“It seems that I expected too much from you,” I muttered to myself as I brushed the dust and dirt off myself. “If you are a level forty. Then that shitty old man’s kick that I got all the time was a level four hundred.”

I reached into my boot and pulled out the blue hair sticks that I’d used before. I held them in my mouth as I reached back and grabbed my hair and twisted it. I brought it up and twisted again while I wrapped it a few times to make it into a bun before taking the sticks and securing it in place as best I could. I’d have preferred to have the hair clip but I didn’t have that with me. I’d also prefer to be wearing pants but I didn’t think they’d wait for me to go change. Oh well, you can’t always pick and choose.

I heard cries of outrage and shock coming from both the crowd and the few conscious fishmen as I started walking. I wasn’t in any particular hurry though as I figured Zoro could handle at least one of them by himself, even if he really _shouldn’t_ handle anything in his state.

Ducking through the hole I’d made, I saw I was right and that Zoro was taking the squid to town. Apparently, the squid was a ‘swordsman’. I snorted. Just because you know how to use them didn’t make you a swordsman. Just like being able to make edible food didn’t make you a real chef.

Suddenly, I saw Kuroobi about to punch the already exhausted Zoro. “This is for what you did to Hachi!”

I planted one foot and swung my other forward. He blocked but had to stop attacking Zoro to do it. He backed up several steps as my kick sent him slightly off balance. “You punched me far away. It’s very rude to do that to a lady, ya sorry excuse for soup.”

“I can’t believe that there is a human who can survive my punch,” he said staring at me with wide eyes. “Much less a girl.”

I scoffed and took a drag from my cigarette. “There are lots of people who could survive at one particular restaurant,” I said with a smile. “A shitty punch like that can’t hurt me.”

“How dare you insult me!”

Zoro started pushing himself up onto his knees. “We have to help Luffy,” he said.

“Don’t be stupid. If you go down there right now, you’ll die,” I said turning to face him more directly. His wound was far too large for him to go into water right now. He’d bleed out.

“Shut up,” he grumbled. “This is more than he can take now. We don’t have time to wait for your fight.”

I smirked a bit. “I know. I understand completely about having a time limit,” I said subtly shifting my feet out of the bottom of my boots so that I could pull them off easily. “That’s why you’d better be the one who shuts up, handsome.” I reached down and pulled off my boots. “Just sit there and look pretty. I’ll handle it,” I said before running a few steps and then diving into the water.

I instantly started swimming down towards the bottom. It was deeper than I thought; at least fifty feet of nothing but salt water between the surface and the rocky bottom. As I got closer, I saw the villager with the patchwork of scars across his skin kneeling next to Luffy. But there was something weird about Luffy. I blinked to clear my eyes and realized what it was. ‘ _His neck is stretching!_ ’

A smile creased my mouth. ‘ _I get it. Even though they can’t break that rock he can still breathe. I just have to break that rock, and leave the rest to that old man_ ,’ I thought as I swam as fast as I could.

Suddenly, something slammed into the back of my neck, winding me so that I lost a great deal of the air I had been holding in. “That Kokoyashi Villager is asking for trouble,” Kuroobi said before speeding past me. “Even though you can save his life, it still means nothing. I will take care that you rest in peace under here too.”

I grabbed his leg before he could truly get away from me and he stopped to look back. Like I’d really let him kill that man who was helping my adorable little captain. “So, you really want to fight me down here? You are just a weakling species that can’t live without air. Okay, you asked for it! Catching Whip!” Suddenly, his long ponytail wrapped around my waist. It was more than mildly creepy.

My leg went flying forward but it felt too heavy and kicking was harder than it should have been. He had no trouble dodging. Kuroobi chuckled a bit. “You call that a kick? You power will be cut in half under the water. But for us fishmen, water density means nothing to us. When we fight under here our power will increase!” he said before launching his foot forward. “Ocean Kick!!”

I couldn’t get out of the way fast enough and his foot slammed into my stomach, forcing more air out of my lungs. While I was still winded, he started spinning and I didn’t like the looks of it. His heel suddenly came down across the back of my head sending me towards the bottom of the ocean before his foot came back and slammed into my jaw. All of this before I even had time to move a muscle. He was just too fast under the water. I couldn’t keep up. “Attacking Palm!”

My lower jaw slammed up into my upper jaw and my head snapped back before I suddenly felt myself slamming into the rock cliff behind me. A steady stream of bubbles escaped my nose before I could regain my bearings enough to hold my tiny amount of air again. I found the bottom and kicked off with both feet. I needed air something serious! Luckily, I was one of the fastest swimmers on the Baratie where the afternoon Sunday activity was either swimming or cleaning. Swimming tended to win out.

I stopped abruptly, however, when Kuroobi was suddenly in front of me. “Where are you going?” he asked.

I clamped a hand over my mouth to hold in the air that wanted to escape. I needed to get to the surface. **Now**! “You’re really strong. I can’t believe that you are just a human.”

‘ _I would be offended by that after I could breathe’_ , I thought.

“Look closely. This is the result of trying to be a hero. You can’t escape anywhere. This game will end with your death. After this game, I will kill that intruder. And that rubber man will instantly die! And then, I will kill that long nose boy, Zoro, and every villager who tried to go against us. And for that betrayer Nami, she won’t live peacefully. Do you get it? After all, you are just a fake hero. You can’t protect anyone!!”

I felt my temper spike. How dare he!! “All humans are weak! And it seems that you can’t take changeable water pressure! So, if you go into the deep sea, your body will explode.” ‘ _Actually I think it’s supposed to be ‘im’plode,_ ’ I corrected mentally. At least that's what I thought it was. Pressure and all that. “Let’s go to hell under water!” He grabbed me around the waist and started speeding towards the bottom.

_Shit_. I had to come up with a different plan. This underwater fight was going absolutely horribly. That old man would have to handle Luffy. I needed to be above water to kick this asshole’s fishy tail. And I would too. Nobody called me a fake. Not a fake chef. Not a fake hero. And they certainly didn’t threaten the people I liked! My head slammed into the ocean floor and I clamped my hand over my mouth to try and keep myself from coughing up blood. I couldn’t afford the loss of air and the blood was probably a bad sign too.

Fifty feet or so beneath the water’s surface. I couldn’t swim fast enough. Not with this shitty fish in the way, at least. I needed him to take me closer to the surface then stop him somehow. I pointed at him, hoping that would taunt him enough to do what I wanted him to. It was kind of a sad attempt at a taunt but it was the best I could do. “Why are you still alive?” he asked. He grabbed me by the back of my shirt and kicked off. “I will do that again! You asked for it!”

We were getting closer to the surface, just like I needed. Now to get him out of commission for a minute. My mind raced as I tried to figure something out. Fishmen. They use their lungs to breathe on the surface and change to their gills under water. So, he’s just a fish that talks. Fish die when air is in their gills. I glanced at the surface. It was pretty damn close. ‘ _Well then, let’s see how long you can take air in your gills_ ,’ I thought as I grabbed his shoulder and hoisted myself up. I blew what little air I had left into his gills on his shoulder and he instantly cried out as air bubbles streamed out of his mouth in a painful looking way. ‘ _You’re a fish. So you suffer too.’_

I pushed off against his chest and rocketed towards the surface. When my head broke the water I gasped in as much air as I could. I gasped for a few breaths before coughing even as I swam to the side before pulling myself up. “Hey you,” Zoro greeted as I got close enough.

“Don’t worry. He’s safe,” I said between coughs and gasps.

“Really?”

“Well… fifty percent,” I corrected as I pulled on my boots again.

“Fifty percent?”

I nodded and straightened as my breathing leveled out. “I will explain it to you later.” I turned to the water where Kuroobi was still. “Hey! Come on up here you shitty fish! I will slice you into pieces and eat you with sauce!”

He broke the surface coughing slightly. “It seems that you don’t understand. My strengths aren’t different between underwater or above. Besides, you really made me mad now!” he said getting onto the solid ground and facing me. “I will use the Ultimate Karate to kill you! The punch that I hit you with the first time is the hundred-power punch. But the greatest punch I have is thousand-power punch. If you get hit by this, you will die for sure.”

I had gotten bored around the ‘ultimate karate’ part. So I had already circled around and flung my leg out towards his neck. “Collet kick!” He went flying but I was far from done. He had **pissed me off**. “Épaule kick!” And while he was the same strength in and out of water I was _stronger_ out of water, which he didn't seem to realize.

I winced a bit as my back and ribs twanged in pain but pushed it aside. “What did you say about taking something from me?! Dossier Kick! Genou Kick! Coffre Kick! Cuisse kick!” I announced as I slammed my heel into every part of his body. I pulled my leg back as I prepared for my final kick to the shitty fishman.

“Yo-you. You! Thousand Power-”

“Entrée Shot!” I shouted slamming my left leg into his face to shut him up. He went flying backwards as I straightened. “I suppose you won’t be wanting dessert,” I said, glaring as he slammed into and then through the wall, leaving a nice little cut out of himself behind.


	17. Luffy Joins the Fight

Arlong looked pissed as he got to his feet. I wiped the blood from my face, smirking at the Kuroobi shaped cut out in the wall that I had made. “We win this game. You shitty fish are the losers here.” I couldn’t help but feel proud of myself for slamming that mer-bastard that was twice my size through the wall.

“It seems I’ve been too easy on you,” Arlong said glaring so hard the veins in his eyes were showing. “How dare you beat up my beloved crew!”

“You said that Luffy was fifty percent safe,” Zoro prompted from where he was kneeling behind me. “What did you mean?”

“First, he won’t die for sure. However, I do have to go down there one more time, to take care of something,” I said not taking my eyes off the pissed off shark man in front of us. Just looking at Arlong I knew he’d be tougher than Kuroobi. “But I don’t think that guy will allow us to do that.”

“Probably not,” Zoro agreed.

Then, Arlong lifted his hand palm up. My eyes narrowed in suspicion. Especially when I saw the water pooled there in his webbed hand. What was fish face up to? Whatever it was I had a bad feeling about it. “You puny humans just won’t learn without a beating will you?” he asked before flinging the water towards us.

I leapt to the side instantly. I had no idea what the water would do but I didn’t want to find out. Zoro leapt out of the way too. I barely landed when another spray of water came at me and I had to dodge again. A single drop of water hit my shoulder and I almost cried out at the shockwave that blasted through my body. It was like getting hit with a fire hose!

I was quickly out of breath from dodging so I knew Zoro was far worse off than me. He had that huge wound on his torso and all. I glanced over and saw almost a full force hit coming at him and leapt forward pushing him out of the way before I rolled over him to dodge myself. We were both gasping for breath at the relentless onslaught as I pushed myself onto my hands and knees. “This is not fun,” I muttered before coughing up a worrisome amount of blood. The fight with Kuroobi under the water and with all the pressure changes had more than taken its toll on me. I felt like I needed one of those decompression tank thingies.

My whole body was screaming at me, especially my back that hadn’t even recovered from Pearl yet. Stupid shield wearing bastard. I turned to face Arlong, glaring as menacingly as I could, though I doubted it helped. Zoro seemed completely spent. I wasn’t even sure he was conscious. There was no way he could dodge Arlong’s attacks and I couldn’t tote him around in my condition.

“You are just weakling humans. I don’t have to even touch you and make my hands dirty. Just this amount of water can kill you. This is the difference between my species and yours,” he said holding up another palm full of water. Where the hell was he getting it from?

I pushed the unimportant thought to the side as I forced my body to move. “Maybe you underestimate us!” I planted my left foot and swung my right around towards Arlong’s chest. “Caisse Kick!”

He dodged easily before flinging the water at me. It broke across my thigh before it almost literally exploded with force. I cried out and slammed hard against the cement ground. More blood was coming up and that was definitely a bad sign. I couldn’t fight this guy. Maybe at full strength… but not like I was. He was hella stronger than Kuroobi. To the point he was at a completely other level. After all, he just threw a bit of water and it felt like a shotgun blast to the leg. My whole thigh was throbbing and I could practically feel the bruises forming already.

“I think you’d better hurry and die. Cause your life is not worth anything anyway,” Arlong said as I pushed myself up again. Like hell I’d give up to someone like him, especially after saying I was worthless. I wouldn’t let him be right.

“ **ARLONG**!”

I looked up, blinking the blood from my eye. “Nami,” Arlong replied casually. What the hell was she doing here? Or better yet…why wasn’t she here to start with?! Stupid orange haired idiot! “I am about to crush these worthless pirates to the ground. What are you doing here?” Arlong asked.

“I’ve come here to kill you,” she answered. I noticed vaguely that she was still wearing Luffy’s hat.

“Kill me?” Arlong echoed before bursting into loud annoying laughter. “For eight years we’ve been together, how many times have you tried to kill me? Attacking me when I was off guard, poisoning me, or even hiring someone. After all, you can’t kill me, right? You should realize by now that you, a human, doesn’t even have a little chance to kill me.” Then his voice grew darker. “Listen. I won’t kill you and I won’t let you go. You will be our navigator forever!

“But as you already know, I am not a cruel person. I will not lock you up. If possible, I want you to still be our navigator. I am going to kill every human here except you. However, if you say that you will join us again and continue drawing maps for us…I will spare every Kokoyashi Villagers’ lives. But not these guys,” he said kicking me in the gut. My ribs shrieked in agony and I instantly lost the strength in my arms. I fell to the ground with a gasp of pain. Damn, I was beat bad. I can’t remember ever hurting this much. “Because they have created too much trouble. I will let you choose,” Arlong continued. “Between joining us and saving the Kokoyashi villagers or following these insect and trying to kill me. But as you can see, these hopeful little people can’t do anything anymore,” he said resting his heavy foot on my back.

I bit back the groan and closed my eyes. I was definitely going to feel this tomorrow…if tomorrow was an option, of course. Neither me nor Zoro, who I could tell was just next to me, had even close to the energy it would take to defeat Arlong. Luffy was our only choice and he was stuck underwater. I could probably muster the strength to kick the rock weighting him down but that was it.

“So, Nami, will you join us?” Arlong asked. “Or are you going to choose them?” He took a step to the side, mercifully taking the weight off my back and side. Though I was still not up to moving.

I could hear the villagers outrage at the choice but honestly I was a little beyond caring at the moment. “I am sorry everyone!” Nami shouted over them and I was vaguely worried she’d just let us get murdered. “Please fight with me!” Oh good. I was wrong. I kinda wanted to be this time.

“SURE!!”

I pushed myself up to my knees again. They would need all the limited help I could give. I had maybe two good kicks left in me. “You asked for it,” Arlong growled. Suddenly, there was a huge spurt of water on the other side of the wall and the sound of an incredibly loud inhale. “What is that!?”

Even better! “He’s back,” I said grinning. Luffy was in the best shape out of all of us after all. “The only think left is to destroy that rock.”

“So, this is what you were talking about,” Zoro muttered rolling slowly onto his side. He pushed himself up and gave Nami and the crowd a thumb’s down. “I can give you thirty seconds. I can’t take more than that,” he told me as he put his white sword in his mouth.

“More than enough,” I said diving into the water. I swam as fast as my body would let me, luckily it was easier to go down than up. ‘ _Okay, Luffy_ ,’ I thought as I got closer. ‘ _I’m begging you. You are our last hope here, cutie pie_.’ If I can destroy that rock that Luffy’s legs are stuck in, he could take care of Arlong. He was the only one who could still fight after all! Nami wasn’t much of a fighter and I had no idea where Usopp was. Not that he was much of a fighter either.

As I got closer, I saw that Nami’s sister, whatever her name was, was trying to pull Luffy’s legs out of the rock. I motioned for her to get out of the way. I was going to use the momentum of my swimming to add a bit of force to my kick that the water resistance took away. That should equal everything out to make the rock nothing for me to take care of.

“Octopus’s punch!” I turned and shouted (uselessly, I might add) as I saw Nami’s sister in front of Hachi who was flinging about fifty million punches our way. Suddenly, he broke off as the gash in his chest spurted ruby blood into the water. I scoffed a bit; more annoyed that Nami’s sister had actually scared me a bit with her sacrificial behavior. A few punches I could handle, her probably not so much.

I turned and threw all my weight into a kick. I slammed my heel into the rock, shattering it surprisingly easily. Luffy’s body flailed for a second. ‘ _Hurry up and go!_ ’ I mentally chided. Suddenly his body sped towards the surface. ‘ _Go beat the crap out of that sawfish._ ’

I kicked off the bottom of the ocean floor and started swimming towards the surface. There was no reason to be down there anymore. Nami’s sister was right behind me as I made my way up. I gasped in fresh air as my head broke the surface. It took me a minute and the help of the scarred guy -Gen or something- to pull myself out of the water. I leaned myself against a nearby pillar to watch the fight that I could no longer do anything to help with.

I needed serious nicotine. I put a crumpled cigarette in my mouth and tried to light a match but everything was too wet. I sighed and threw the ruined cigarettes and matches to the side. Pity. “If he loses, all of us will die,” I commented as Luffy limbered up (as if it were really necessary for him…).

“And that also will be the end of the east blue,” Nami’s sister added.

“That’s right,” Scarred dude agreed.

None of us seemed to have the energy to worry about it at the moment though. I did wonder what happened to Zoro. I couldn’t see him anywhere. But I knew he wasn’t in the water. We would have seen him fall in if that had happened. So, I figured he was fine. Maybe the crowd had ushered him out of the way. That seemed the intelligent thing to do anyway.

I watched with growing trepidation as Arlong showed just how powerful his teeth and jaws were as he destroyed a stone pillar with a single bite. “Shit. If he was bitten, his body including his bones would be gone,” I muttered. I could clearly imagine Luffy with a huge shark bite taken out of his side. Not a pretty sight.

“Human is a stupid species with no power!” Arlong shouted as he started to rush Luffy. “When you were drowning you couldn’t do anything. So, what can you do now?” he demanded.

“Because I can’t do anything, others have to help me,” Luffy said picking up two swords from the ground.

I was very confused. Why have a swordsman if you can use swords yourself? Then again swords were a pretty common weapon. “He…can use swords, too?” So far I had only seen him punch and kick…

Luffy started swinging the swords around recklessly. I almost winced as I imagined him cutting off his own leg. “What are you doing? You just swing those swords around. It’s nothing!” Arlong pointed out. Luffy suddenly threw one sword to the side, slapping Arlong across the face as he did so. “If you want to play, I don’t have time to play with you!”

Luffy swung his other sword and Arlong bit it in half. “This is meaningless.”

“Your teeth will break!” Luffy swore as he pulled his arm back for a full force punch. His fist slammed into Arlong’s jaw and the sawfish man went reeling backwards. His teeth shattered all at once. Luffy got to his feet. “How could I know how to use swords? You idiot!”

“I don’t know anything about navigation! I can’t cook! I’ve never lied to anyone! I am sure that if no one helps me, I can’t survive!” Luffy added at the top of his lungs.

Arlong laughed as he sat up. “I’ve never thought that you were this worthless. You are only good at boasting! Your crew must have headaches with a captain like you. I don’t know why these people have to risk their lives for you. A person with no pride, like you, is not worth being a captain! What can you do?”

“I can defeat you,” Luffy said with an insane grin.

I chuckled a bit and smiled slightly. “And that’s the way it should be.” Being a captain wasn’t about being the best at everything. What would be the point of a crew if you could do it all yourself? It was about leading and taking care of the things your crew couldn’t. And we sure couldn’t defeat Arlong.

“Shut up! You puny human!” Arlong snapped. He opened his mouth wide and his broken teeth were pushed from his mouth by a brand new set of sharp sharks teeth. Oh crap. That’s right. Sharks continually regrew teeth.

I watched as Arlong pulled two sets of teeth out and started attacking Luffy with them as makeshift weapons. At one point I was sure Luffy was about to get a piece taken out but he had pushed one of the nearby fallen mermen into the line of -in this case- bite to take the blow. “I have some good ideas,” Luffy said with a smile.

I raised an eyebrow at that. “He found a technique to beat that crappy fish?” I couldn’t help but be a bit surprised. So far, Luffy’s ‘techniques’ involved pure force to break things and beat the opponent into submission. Not that there was anything wrong with that. It just didn’t take that much brainpower to do.

The fight quickly picked up and Luffy knocked the teeth right out of Arlong’s mouth. _‘Okay, what was the point of that if he can just grow them back?_ ’ I wondered. But my answer was give a moment later when Luffy stuck the teeth in his own mouth. “Look! I have the same teeth as you now.”

I couldn’t help but slap a hand over my face in mortification. Honestly, how dense could one person get? Why had I joined his crew again? “Stop playing around!” Johnny and Yosaku shouted from the front entrance.

“Who said I was playing?” Luffy shouted back.

The fight quickly picked up pace again and both Arlong and Luffy started biting each other. It was a bit silly but there wasn’t much I could do about that. Arlong eventually got his teeth into Luffy’s arm but Luffy slammed him into the ground allowing him to pull his arm back out before it was destroyed. “If he waited for another second, he could’ve lost his arm,” Gen said.

“A guy like him doesn’t have time to worry about that,” I said simply. It sounded eerily like Zeff though and that was a bit disconcerting. Too bad I didn’t have a cigarette to get the bad taste of that idea out of my mouth. Quoting Zeff was a bit too strange for me to handle.

Arlong dove into the water and a few minutes later there was an explosion as something slammed into the upper floors of Arlong Park. I had barely caught sight of Arlong as he rocketed past. “He torpedoed himself?” I asked though nobody confirmed it for me.

Arlong torpedoed himself again, landing nose first in the concrete. He was poised perfectly, his nose supporting his whole weight. “His nose is so strong…it’s unreal! Damn that shark.”

Luffy dodged the next few passes until Arlong went back underwater. “Get out of there, sempai!” Yosaku and Johnny screamed.

“No.”

“What the hell are you saying?! You are his target! Get out of there!” I shouted. I mean; I knew he wasn’t the brightest but that seemed a bit too stupid even for him.

“No!” Luffy shouted facing the water. “I will catch him and destroy his nose!” He’s going to **WHAT**?!


	18. Arlong Defeated

“Why don’t you try that again, you little shark?” Luffy growled at the water. There was even steam coming out of his nose. Too bad his so-called ‘insult’ wasn’t all that offensive. It made me wonder if he listened to me and kind of hope he didn’t. After all, he would lose a bit of charm if he had a sharp tongue.

Usopp started yelling but Luffy just ignored him and stretched out his fingers. I was a bit curious as to what he was doing. Arlong rocketed towards him but Luffy stretched his fingers across his face, preventing him from actually reaching my adorable rubber captain. Suddenly, Luffy went flying off to the side.

“What’s that? He got hurt?!” Usopp shouted.

“No, Luffy jumped out of the way,” I informed, though the explosion of Arlong hitting the wall was a bit worrisome. If that much force had been behind that dart attack what else could this crappy sawfish do?

Arlong pressed the slight advantage he had when Luffy landed on the side of the building. Thankfully, Luffy stopped him with a ‘Rubber Net’, which was basically his stretched out fingers woven together to form a net. A ‘Rubber Spear’ sent Arlong slamming into the concrete patio and I smirked a bit at the blood that he coughed up when he did. ‘ _Take that, Shit Fish_ ,’ I thought as the others cheered off to my right.

“Arlong’s eyes are changing!” Nami’s sister gasped.

I looked closer and realized she was right. “His eyes look like an angry shark!” I breathed. I thought his glare before was bad but his entire pupil had suddenly gone slit like a predators. It was more than a bit unnerving.

Arlong jumped up and grabbed Luffy by the hair before waving him around like a rag doll. Arlong was on a warpath and the more I saw him punching through walls and pulling back swords the more I realized that there was no way I could have taken him on. I was only human after all. “Kiribachi!” Nami shouted when she saw the giant sword Arlong pulled out.

The blade was cut in a zigzag pattern that was very similar to Arlong’s own shark teeth. Arlong wasted no time and started attacking Luffy, who was forced to jump and run for his life. They went all the way up the side of Arlong Park and then inside the building itself.

The minutes ticked by and the longer they were inside the more uneasy I became. I didn’t like not seeing what was happening. Suddenly something came crashing through the side of the building. “A…table,” I said. I was a bit confused that it was furniture and not a person but this fight was already so violent I couldn’t say it was a complete surprise. The table was soon joined by bookcases and chairs and all other sorts of furniture.

My eyes narrowed when hundreds of pieces of paper started flying out of the holes in the wall. One came close enough for me to snatch it and I realized it was a map. Or rather, a sea chart. Probably one of the ones Arlong had Nami make. I looked back up at the hole in the wall. Luffy was destroying it all.

“It stopped,” I commented uneasily.

Suddenly, Luffy’s foot slammed through the top of Arlong Park, easy to recognize from the insane stretch of his leg. He slammed his foot back down with so much force that the entire building started cracking down the middle before it started collapsing in on itself.

The overhang we were under started to give way as well. “Shit!” I dove into the water to avoid a large chunk of debris from crushing me. I heard two splashes as Nojiko and Gen followed my lead.

When we surfaced everything was in chaos, I wasn’t even entirely sure what had happened. “Did Luffy win?” I asked staring at the mountain of rubble in awe.

“Arlong Park has collapsed…” Nami’s sister said in equal awe.

Suddenly, from the top of the rubble mound, someone started to move. It only took a second to recognize a slightly battered but suddenly very ruggedly handsome Luffy straightening. I smiled widely. “Luffy!”

“NAMI!” he shouted suddenly. “ **You are my friend!!”**

“We win!” Usopp shouted.

“YES!” I threw my arms up in victory, not even caring that I flung myself backwards into the water. I was so sick of sharks it wasn’t even funny! I don’t think shark-fin soup will be on any of my menus anytime soon…

All around people were cheering and laughing happily when suddenly someone new shouted. “Stop right there!”

I turned and saw a rat faced marine, complete with whiskers, smirking. “This is my lucky day. I had a chance to watch a very interesting fight from the beginning to the end. It’s not strange to say that you are very lucky because no one will believe that unknown pirates could defeat those mermen.” The squadron of marines he had with them all readied their guns. “Because of you, every single belli of Arlong’s will be mine! Everyone drop your weapons! I, Commander Nezumi of Unit Sixteen, will be happy to accept all the treasure!”

Suddenly the marines scattered with shouts of surprise and fright as Zoro appeared and grabbed Nezumi’s hood. “Zoro!” Usopp shouted in surprise.

“Everyone is happy. So, you’d better not disturb them,” Zoro said to the marine.

“Ah! Zoro’s so awesome!” I gushed, unable to contain myself. He was just so handsome and strong and…awesome!

It didn’t take more than a few minutes to make sure the marines were battered enough that they wouldn’t be fighting anyone for a few months. I needed a little help to get out of the water but once I had gotten out I was able to at least stand and move around on my own, so that was good. “You think that you can get away with this?” Nezumi demanded as I ran my fingers through my hair to get out the major tangles.

“Is he still talking?” I asked tugging out another knot. My clothes and hair were still wet from being in the water but at least I wasn’t in any immediate pain. I was sore all over and probably shouldn’t be moving but my adrenaline was still going, allowing me to ignore my injuries.

Nami came up from behind us and plopped Luffy’s hat on his head before walking past him. I raised an eyebrow as she knelt down next to the Marine commander. “This is…for shooting Nojiko and destroying Bell-mère-san’s orange farm.” She pulled back and slammed her staff into his cheek. The captain slid quite a distance and I allowed myself a brief noise of being impressed. I hadn’t thought Nami could hit that hard.

“Not bad,” I muttered. “Still not as good as me though.”

“Thank you, Nami,” Nojiko said with a smile.

“I still want to beat him up!” The scarred guy said.

Nami then crouched down next to Nezumi and demanded several things including rebuilding a village, getting rid of the mermen that we had beaten, and -of course- returning her money. Nezumi promised to do it before fleeing.

“Hey! He said that you will deserve something,” I commented as he and his marines swam as fast as they could out to their ships.

“How can he know that I deserve to become King of the Pirates?” Luffy asked.

“He didn’t mean that!” Zoro growled.

Usopp was freaking out completely, his jaw stretching to almost Luffy levels in his shock. “What are we gonna do? If what he said is true, what are we gonna do?” he demanded.

I sighed, wishing I had a cigarette with me. “Relax. We can’t exactly be pirates without the marines not liking us,” I pointed out. I turned to study Zoro. At some point, his bandages had been torn off, revealing that wonderful chest but also the badly stitched gash and ridiculous amount of blood. “Love muffin, I think we should get you to a doctor before you bleed out.”

“I’m fine,” he said folding his arms over his chest. “I just need some sleep.”

I frowned. “And some decent stitches. Let’s go.”

“No!” he said recoiling slightly. I was almost tempted to say he was afraid but I didn’t dare. He’d go even more ballistic.

“Hey hey!” Usopp interrupted. “She’s right. You’re going all pale!”

Luffy looked over and stared at Zoro for a minute before jumping back and pointing at him accusingly. “AH! Zoro! You’re covered in blood!!!”

I sighed and rubbed my forehead with one hand. “You could use a doctor too, Cutie pie,” I muttered. “Let’s just all go and find a doctor shall we?” I said turning towards the entrance of the Park. Luffy and Usopp were pulling Zoro along but I didn’t pay much attention to it. He’d get medical treatment whether he wanted it or not. I couldn’t have my favorite hunk dying on me.

We went straight to town and the doctor instantly started working on us. Me and Usopp were the first out as there wasn’t much to be done about cracked ribs and bruises. We sat down outside under an umbrella to wait as the infirmary was pretty crowded. I had gotten new cigarettes from some man in town and while they weren’t my favorite brand they were a relief to have.

I put my cigarette between my lips and held the match to the tip as the sounds of Zoro screaming drifted over. I exhaled my first drag and shook out the match off to the side. “Still not finished yet?”

“What do you expect? His wound needs more than two years to cure!” Usopp said leaning back against the umbrella. I idly wondered where he’d gotten that number from…

“He’s so crazy,” I commented with a smile. “Though, if he’d stop moving it wouldn’t hurt as much…”

It took another hour for Zoro’s chest to be sewn together but seeing as he had the worst wound that was understandable. Luffy came out shortly after Zoro stopped screaming. “Sonya!! I’m hungry!” he said flinging himself across a nearby bench and giving me a pout.

“Well, you did work up an appetite beating up those Mer-bastards,” I mused flicking the ash off my cigarette.

“Don’t worry,” Nami said coming up behind him with her sister and Gen in tow. “Everyone’s already planning a huge party. They’ll be lots of food there,” she said with a smile.

“Wooo! Party!!” Luffy cheered jumping up into the air.

I smiled a bit and looked over at the hospital. “I wonder if Zoro-kun will be allowed to join us,” I mused. “Maybe if he can’t I’ll just give him a private party,” I added mostly to myself with a smile.

Suddenly, Nami slammed her bo staff across my head. “OW! What the hell!?”

“Don’t be so perverted!” she snapped.

“Don’t be such a money grubber,” I replied rubbing my head with my free hand. I glared at her for a minute before straightening. “Ah ha! I got it!”

“Got what?” Usopp asked.

“What Nami’s hair _really_ reminds me of,” I said smiling widely. “Fish eggs!”

“ **What**!?!!” she swung her staff at me and I easily caught it against my boot.

I smirked. “That’s right. From now on, you are ‘Roe for brains’. You gonna do something about it?” Nami fumed and swung her staff again. This time I just ducked. “Ha! Is that the best you got, Roe head?”

“Sonya!” Luffy whined. “I’m hungry!!”

I sighed and got to my feet. “Yes, sweetheart. I’ll get you a snack. Just wait a minute, please.”


	19. Life Aboard the Merry

The party was huge. It lasted for quite a number of days and by the last one Zoro was even able to sit outside with us. I was greatly enjoying that I didn’t have to cook anything for once. Though I loved doing it, it was still nice to have a break. Before the party started Usopp and me had moved all of my things from my destroyed ship to the Going Merry. He’d complained about my number of shoes but backed off when I told him they were just as important as Zoro’s swords. It might have been a slight exaggeration but they were still essentially my weapons.

We had to move all the food from my ship in the dead of night so Luffy wouldn’t notice but I had a feeling that would soon become a necessarily evil for me. My ship was completely trashed and I told the mayor that he could do with it whatever he wanted.

After that, we were free to enjoy the party again. I sat back against the wall of the gazebo Zoro and me were sitting under and reached into my skirt pocket for my cigarette case. “I am so full! I haven’t eaten this much at one time since I was able to eat solid foods again,” I said lighting the cigarette and putting my recently re-found lighter back in my pocket. I picked up my glass of after dinner wine that I had asked the local restaurant for and took a lengthy sip.

“Hey, Sonya! What was that last piece of melon that you just ate?” Luffy asked through a mouth of meat and waving around three pieces of roast in each hand.

“What’s with the hand full of meat? Are you going to sell it?” Zoro asked before taking another gulp of beer. That was a very good question. Why _was_ Luffy caring meat around like that?

“Sonya!!” Luffy whined.

Oh, right, his question. “Oh! That was melon wrapped in prosciutto which is a type of…” I drifted off at the blank look he was giving me. I sighed heavily, why had I bothered? “Fresh Ham Melon. The stuff wrapped around the melon was ham,” I explained in laymen’s and somewhat incorrect terms.

“Fresh Ham Melon? Where did you get that?”

“The whole village is celebrating, so there is food everywhere, sweetheart,” I stated simply. If he expected me to recall where in the jumble of people I found one piece of food he grossly overestimated my slightly tispy memory.

“I will go and find it. I’ll be back!” Luffy stated before running off down the street.

Zoro took another large draining gulp from his mug, “The only thing he has done lately is eat.”

I nodded in agreement. “I can’t eat anymore,” I said tapping my cigarette off the side of the gazebo. “Whatd’ya say we start our own party, Zoro-kun?” I asked sliding over to lay my head against his uninjured shoulder.

“You really don’t quit do you?” he grunted looking at me with one eye.

I smiled at him, “It’s part of my charm.”

“You smell like tobacco,” he said before draining the rest of his beer.

“Of course I do, I’m smoking,” I said waving my cigarette around to illustrate the point even clearer. “I think it smells _spicy_ don’t you, handsome?” I blinked a bit at the lack of reply, “Zoro?”

Looking over I saw that he had fallen asleep sitting up. I sighed and finished off my cigarette before flicking it off to the side. I shifted in my seat and examined his profile. He really was handsome. In a young daredevil sort of way. I smiled and lay down so that my head was on his knee and closed my eyes. I didn’t care if he snapped at me when he woke up. I was dead set on getting him to warm up to me and if that meant sleeping on him once and a while, well, that was something I’d gladly do.

The next morning, I woke up before Zoro out of habit and was first one on the ship to make sure my new galley was how I wanted it. I took stock of everything I had and put the food that needed to be refrigerated in the icebox so that it wouldn’t spoil. By the time everyone else got there, I was just putting my checklist into the drawer by the sink.

Yosaku and Johnny decided to stay behind where they would go off after they got another boat. The only one not around was Nami. We were due to leave any minute and she still wasn’t here. If she weren’t the only one who really knew navigation I wouldn’t have cared at all but as it stood Usopp and myself could probably barely navigate on a clear day much less if a storm came up. Luffy and Zoro were useless when it came to navigation. “Maybe she’s not coming with us,” Zoro suggested.

“Gah! After all we did for her if she doesn’t be our navigator until we find another I’m gonna kick her ass!” I snapped angrily. Though admittedly, being left high and dry seemed just like something Nami would do.

“You tricked me about those Fresh Ham Melons, right?” Luffy accused.

“What? No, I didn’t,” I said. “Just because you couldn’t find them doesn’t mean I tricked you.”

Suddenly, there was a shout to ‘raise the anchor’ and I could just make out Nami running towards the dock. “She is running here. What is she thinking?” Usopp asked curiously.

“She said to raise the anchor. Just do it,” Luffy replied.

“Unfold the sail!” Nami yelled.

I raised an eyebrow but went to help Usopp do as we were told. If she wanted to be a bitch to her home village I wasn’t going to stop her. Besides, I hadn’t intended to say goodbye to the _Baratie_ either. If Zeff hadn’t said anything I wouldn’t have even looked back. The wind caught the sail and the Merry started moving away from the dock.

“Is it a good think to say goodbye like this?” I asked Luffy. Having the ship already leaving seemed more like running away to me. At least I’d walked calmly to the boat. Even if Zeff had gone and ruined it by saying that stupid sentimental shit.

“Just let her do it in her own way,” Luffy replied as Nami wove through the crowd that had gathered.

“Naj-chan!!” The crowd cried as she leapt from the dock and onto the back porch of the Merry. “Why?”

She straightened from where she had landed and lifted her shirt. Dozens of wallets fell onto the deck and I slapped my forehead with my hand. “You little thief!!” The village yelled as they realized she’d stolen their wallets.

“She never changes,” Usopp said flatly.

“Is she going to betray us again?” Zoro questioned.

“I’m going to kick her overboard by the time we even reach the Grand Line,” I muttered behind my hand. Luffy only laughed at the whole thing.

The village seemed to forgive her though, laughing even as they yelled at her to come back and return all the wallets she had stolen. “Goodbye everyone! See you later!” she yelled back to them with a large wave.

Once we were out of yelling distance Nami turned to us, hands on her hips and fierce look in her eyes. “Alright, lets get really moving!” She instantly started barking orders and I managed to slip away to the galley instead of bothering with changing the setting of the sails.

I didn’t manage to escape for long though. “Alright, Sonya!” Nami said coming into the galley with her hands on her hips. “If I’m gonna room with you, you have to learn some base rules.”

I stared at her for a long moment, “Such as?”

“If you borrow my things, it’s a thirty belli fee for every hour at two hundred percent interest. If you lose or damage something of mine you pay for me to replace it,” she stated holding up two fingers.

I scoffed a bit. As if I would borrow anything of hers away. It wouldn’t fit me right as she had different measurements than I did. “Well, let me put my own base rule down then. Don’t borrow my shoes. Period. No fee no interest. Just don’t.”

“Like I could even wear your giant shoes. You’ve got monster feet,” she replied looking down at my polished black dress shoes.

I scowled at that. “I can put these monster feet up your rear end if you don’t cut with the crap, Roe-head.”

“Why you blonde little bimbo! Stop calling me that!” Nami snapped.

“Make me, orange peel!”

She flung one side of her staff out but a quick move from my leg and it was knocked drastically off course. She stumbled back a few steps and I lowered my leg with a bit of a smirk. “You’ve gotta long way to go before you can even think of taking me on, Roe brains. Try fighting someone more your own size... like Usopp."

Nami glared slightly and I smiled, “Now, rule number two. The Galley is my area. You come in here and try to boss me around I’ll kick you out on your ass. Rule three, the left side of the cabin we share will be mine you can have the right. Anything else and we can discuss it when it comes up.”

She straightened and put her hands to her hips again. “You are in charge of the food supplies, right?”

I raised an eyebrow at the sudden topic change, “Yeah…”

“Alright then, my orange trees are on the upper deck. I expect to make sure they last.”

“What?! Why me? They’re your stupid oranges! You take care of them!” I snapped angrily. I wasn’t about to do something that should be her job! I had enough to worry about just worrying about the galley and feeding Luffy the bottomless pit of a captain.

“Because if you take care of them then I’ll let you use some for the crew. Imagine not having to waste money on as many citruses because you can use my oranges,” she said with a superior smile.

I smiled back, “What do I care about money? That’s your department not mine.”

She frowned. “I can cut your budget.”

“I’ll make sure Luffy knows why he has half the food he normally does then,” I replied going over to my list of supplies and erasing the bottom number. “I’m sure he’ll understand it’s not like he enjoys food or anything.”

“Alright alright!” Nami snapped. “Point taken.”

I met her glare dead on and smirked when she finally turned away with a huff. “Fine, you don’t have to take care of them. But I’ll need your help to keep Luffy and the others away from them. I can’t watch them all the time. And then we’ll be without oranges for who knows how long. And I want the left side of the cabin.”

“Well, too bad because my stuff is already on the left side,” I replied fixing the changes I made to my list and putting it back in its proper spot.

She whipped around. “Who told you you could do that?!”

“I claimed it when you were off stealing people’s wallets, you little thief,” I said casually. I chuckled a bit as Nami stormed out of the galley, shouting something at Zoro for being asleep. I scowled at that. “Stop yelling at Zoro-kun! He’s injured!” I shouted out of the galley window.

She flipped me the bird and kept storming off. I rolled my eye and went back to what I was doing before she so rudely interrupted. Suddenly the door burst open and a ball of limbs came flying inside. “Luffy!”

“Sonya! I’m hungry!” he said from where he was in a heap against the far wall.

“And you nearly broke down my door…why!?”

“I tripped,” he answered jumping to his feet. “I want meat, Sonya!”

I suppressed my urge to kick him out of the door and rubbed my forehead, “Cupcake, we just set out. I’ll make you something to eat in a little while.”

“But I want something now!” Luffy whined.

“Luffy,” I started with a sigh. “We’re at sea, you can’t just eat whenever it suits you. You have to make sure you’ll have enough food to last the whole trip. There’s no telling how soon it will be before you come to another island that has food to resupply the ship so I can’t just give you food whenever, no matter how much I may want to.” I turned and saw Luffy with a blank look on his face even though he was nodding. “You have no idea what I just said, do you?”

“I get it!” Luffy said with utter seriousness. And then, in complete contradiction, he took off his hat and held it in front of him in a begging position. “Pleeeeeeaaaseeee?”

I sighed and rolled my eyes. Clearly, the point had not landed safely. I opened the fridge and pulled out a small apple. “Here,” I said tossing it to him. “Eat that. I’ll make a snack in a little while.”

“But I want meat…” he pouted.

“Luffy! Get out already!” I snapped kicking his ultra flexible body. His back bowed almost completely in half before he went flying out of the open door where he eventually slammed into the main mast and molded around the hard wood of the mast.

I walked over and closed the door before turning back to my galley with a huff. What had I gotten myself into? “Sonya! Do you have any hot peppers I can use?” Usopp asked leaning through the window of the galley. He had marks all over his face from whatever he had been doing.

“Peppers?” I echoed in confusion. “Like black pepper or something spicy pepper?”

“Spicy! As hot as you have!” he exclaimed excitedly. “I’m working on a new ammo for my slingshot!”

I thought for a minute before walking over to the icebox and opening it to peer inside. I opened the bottom crisper and pulled out a few peppers before closing everything again. “Here ya go. I don’t use many of these in my cooking anyway. Oh, you don’t have an allergies or anything do you? I need to know if I have an ingredient I need to replace.”

“Nope! I don’t think anybody on the crew has anything like that, but I can make sure for ya!” he said examining the peppers I had given him. “Hey, what are the hottest part of these things anyway?”

I picked up a knife from my knife block and took back one of the peppers. I sliced it down the middle and picked up the half and held it so he could see. I pointed to the seeds with the tip of my knife. “The seeds have a lot of heat but since you can’t eat them really we tend to take them out. Especially if you want stuffed peppers. But the oils in the pepper itself are what give the lasting heat. Because the oil stick to your skin and linger in your eyes and on your tongue. If you crush up the seeds and mix them with the oil you should be in good shape to make someone really hate you.”

“Neat…How should I crush the seeds?” he asked poking the center of the pepper carefully.

I held up a finger and put my knife down before rummaging in one of the cabinets beneath the counter. I finally located an old mortar and pestle that I never used anymore because I had gotten a better one. I washed it to make sure it was clean and handed it to Usopp. “There ya go. Don’t bother giving it back. I’ve got two more in here.”

“Thanks Sonya!” Usopp said jumping down from whatever he had been standing on and hurrying off towards a free area near the mast.

“SONYA!!”

I growled a bit. “What do you want, Roe-head?!” I shouted back.

“Give Luffy something to eat already! He’s driving me nuts!”

“I already did!”

“Well give him something else!”

I sighed and threw the door open to figure out where exactly she was yelling at me from. I spotted her lounging out on the deck and I glared slightly. “I’ll make something later. I still have to check all the food for quality. Back off, Egg-head,” I said angrily.

“We just got that food it can’t be bad already!” she declared.

“And this is why I’m here. You’d all die of starvation. Food spoils super fast on the ocean. All the moisture and the coolness from being held in our storage room means bacteria grows really fast. You have to check it every day to make sure it’s still good. Let me do my job!” I snapped.

She frowned. “I think you’re just wasting time.”

Before I could yell at her, Zoro spoke up from where he was lifting weights, “Leave her alone, you witch. If you could cook you’d be doing it. But you can’t so let her do what she’s best at.”

I gave him a bright smile. “Thank you, Zoro-kun~,” I said blowing him a kiss. “I love you too.”

He snorted a bit. “I never said I love you. I didn’t even say I liked you.”

I pouted a bit at that. “But you like me more’n that fish head idiot, right?”

“Yeah sure,” he said absently.

I grinned broadly and practically skipped back to the galley. I was in the mood to cook something now. So, I quickly checked the supplies for anything spoiled and then whipped up a nice snack for everybody, putting a bit of extra care into the one that was for Zoro.


	20. Extra: Jango's Dance Carnival

“Hey! Hey! Look! It’s a giant turtle!” Luffy cried from his position on the head of the Merry, where he had taken to sitting everyday for various periods of time. I stuck my head out of the door and saw a giant dome in the distance. I frowned a bit, knowing full well that it was far too smooth to be a turtle shell.

“That’s not a turtle, Luffy,” Nami said leaning across the railing to get a good look.

I lit a new cigarette as I walked over to where they had all gathered. “It’s Mirrorball Island.” They all turned to look at me in confusion. I nodded before exhaling a stream of smoke. “A lot of our customers at the Baratie talk about it. Apparently, it’s a party island that has a huge disco ball hanging inside that dome.”

“Coooooll!” Luffy shouted, eyes going wide. “We need to go there!” he announced instantly and pointed to the dome off in the distance. Nami groaned a bit but judging from the look on Luffy’s face he wasn’t about to take no for an answer. Zoro didn’t look any happier though Usopp at least looked sort of interested.

Nami barked out a few orders to get us towards the entrance of the dome before rounding on me. “Why’d you have to say party, huh? You know how Luffy gets!” She put her hands on her hips and glared.

I sighed and blew a stream of smoke at her. She coughed a bit and waved her hand in front of her face. “I just said what it was. Not my fault that Cupcake’s got it in his head to go there. Besides, parties mean easy pickpocketing, right?” Suddenly, she brightened and started barking even more orders, and I rolled my eyes. She really was too predictable.

It wasn’t long before we were docked inside the huge dome and we found that the stories about the giant disco ball were very much true. Despite being the middle of the day the whole island was as dark as the middle of the night due to the dome over the island and the disco ball was reflecting thousands of points of light across the town. “Welcome to Mirrorball Island!” a booming voice said over the loud speakers. “Tonight’s our great Annual Dance Carnival!”

I raised an eyebrow at that. Apparently, we had landed on just the right day. It somehow didn’t surprise me that we would land during a huge party. That seemed to be our luck. “Let’s make it happen people!” the apparent host said before music started booming from huge speakers in the mountain wall. It was so loud in made my teeth shake a little. Cheers rose instantly as the music picked up.

“This place is great!” Luffy said walking down the brightly lit streets slightly ahead of us.

“If this is a party, where’s the grog?” Zoro asked looking around dully.

“You drink way too much,” Usopp muttered as Nami shopped around at the various stalls. I was too busy looking at the different spicy foods that were being sold to pay much attention to them. It was all pretty much basic easy to eat carnival fair from what I saw, but I couldn’t help but be interested. “All the light posts have disco balls on them,” he noticed looking up at the one we just passed.

“I’ll bet that was expensive to do,” I muttered.

Nami nodded in agreement. “I’ll bet that means the people here are really rich!” I recoiled slightly at the sight of belli where her eyes used to be. How did she do that? It didn’t seem at all normal.

Suddenly, someone came barreling past. I just had time to make out a long blue coat and heart shaped sunglasses as the stranger ran through us at breakneck speed. “Na?” Luffy questioned as the person passed him.

“Huh? Wasn’t that Jango?” Zoro asked looking after him.

“Yeah…” Usopp agreed also staring. I blinked in confusion. Who the hell was Jango? “Looks like the Marines are after him. Serves him right.” I guess that meant this 'Jango' wasn’t a friend of ours.

Nami turned away. “Let’s just get going before we get involved somehow, okay?”

I had to admit that sounded like a great idea. The last thing we needed was Marine troubles. She started walking the way we had been going, and I started after her. “Roe-brains has a point. Let’s keep things simple for once.”

“Stop calling me that!” Nami snapped.

“Make me,” I replied.

Suddenly, there was a scream from behind us, and I turned to see the Marines change direction and start after us. We screamed and started running instantly. I, at least, was not interested in fighting Marines at the moment. “Why did this have to happen?!” Nami shouted as she ran.

“How the hell should we know?” I asked back as we started up a flight of stairs.

“It’s because Luffy was standing there like an idiot!” Usopp supplied from where he was running behind Zoro.

“Don’t sweat it!” Luffy said as he brought up the rear. He seemed entirely unrepentant and almost cheerful, annoyingly enough.

The stairs seemed to go on forever as we ran up them and followed the twisting and turning pathway they made. I didn’t bother to look behind us as we ran. I didn’t really want to know how close the Marines were to us. We crashed into boxes of produce, and I suppressed the urge to curse at the wasted food.

We turned another corner, and a mother just dragged her son inside in time to avoid getting trampled by our flight. We kept running, taking strange turns and short flights of stairs to try and lose our pursuers. We slid to a stop when we reached a huge drop off of a cliff. “Wha?” How did we end up overlooking the entire bloody city? And for that matter why did they even have a cliff up here without railings?!

We didn’t have time to ponder that though as Luffy came barreling into where we were standing and sending us all careening off the edge. I screamed bloody murder along with the rest of them as we fell several dozen stories. “Gum Gum…” oh no “Balloon!”

I felt something hit me and was flung straight into the giant disco ball. I scrambled to my feet to try and get out of the way but it was too late, and Luffy’s inflated body slammed into us. We all fell off the disco ball and into the mountain brush as the disco ball started swinging side to side.

We landed in a heap, and I groaned as I got to my feet. “We have to hurry to the Merry!” Usopp cried.

“I second that!” I said pushing through the bramble and bushes. My suit had several small tears in it but at least we were uninjured for the most part.

“Come on!” Nami said running towards town again. “We have to go through town to get to the docks!”

I managed to not groan and hurried after her. I didn’t have time to wonder where Luffy was. I didn’t much care either. I knew he could take care of himself, and right now I just wanted to get back to the ship and get out of here. This whole little excursion had fallen flat on its face. I hadn’t even had a chance to taste any of the food, damn it!

Suddenly, a new voice filled the speakers. “Time to let loose! Nothing can stop us now! When the music starts kickin’ you’re all going to dance…till you drop!” I couldn’t help but look around. Where was that even coming from? I didn’t really like the sound of that. I spotted the disco ball hanging down swaying back and forth due to our collision a few moments before. “One, two…Jango!!”

Music started blaring again and to my vague horror, my feet and arms started moving in ways I wasn’t telling them to. It was incredibly difficult to dance and run at the same time. And, I freely admit, I wasn’t all that good at dancing anyway. My limbs seemed to be moving all over the place whenever they damn well felt like it.

Everyone seemed to be dancing. Even the marines. I heard a crash and looked up just in time to see cracks filling the top of the dome. Ah, crap. I nearly fell over as my legs moved in the opposite of the direction that I had meant to go.

We kept dancing as we tried to get to the ship. There was another, louder, crash and the disco ball started to fall along with giant pieces of the dome that had been their permanent night sky. The whole world seemed to be shattering as we scrambled into the ship and cut the lines keeping us tied to the docks.

The waves were huge as the giant dome broke apart and fell into the sea. But we managed to get a safe distance away and when the compulsion finally wore off we all collapsed to the deck in heaps. “Ah…my legs are weak all over…” Nami complained.

“We barely got away…by dancing,” Usopp was face down on the deck, and I was afraid he might actually die from exertion.

“Hey, you think Luffy’s alright?” Zoro asked weakly.

I looked around and realized he, in fact, wasn’t on the ship but currently I was too exhausted to care. He was cute and all, but my legs were throbbing from trying to dance and run at the same time. “He’ll be fine. Unless you wanna go get him, Zoro-kun.”

“No way.”


	21. Louge Town

I was collecting a bunch of oranges from Nami’s trees so that I could preserve them for later. If I didn’t, they’d just go bad, and I absolutely hated wasting food like that. I couldn’t stand to do it. I saw a rubber hand reaching for my basket. My infamous temper snapped, and my leg flew out and around, catching Luffy right in the face. “Don’t touch those!” He went flying across the deck.

Usopp screamed as the pepper concoction he had been working on for the past few days went straight into his eyes as Luffy collided with him. “It’s just one orange!” Luffy said sitting up and utterly ignoring the sharpshooter who was in clear agony if the flames coming from his eyes were any indication.

“I can’t just give you food whenever you want, Luffy! You have to be disciplined! And these oranges are our primary source of vitamin C. Do you want to get scurvy?” I all but demanded. I had the distinct feeling Luffy wasn’t listening to me, though.

I was proven right when he grinned broadly and turned away. “Well! That’s ok because I am in a good mood now.”

I rolled my eyes and looked over at Nami, who was reading her stupid overpriced newspaper. “Nami! Protect your own oranges once and a while would you? I have other crap to do today than sit up here and guard a few plants!”

“Yes, yes, I hear you,” she said without even looking at me.

I growled a bit in annoyance and grabbed the basket of oranges that were about to over-ripen and started towards the galley. Usopp was still screaming and flailing about, but I was pretty sure he’d be alright. Unless he did something strange to those peppers I gave him, that is. If I had gotten some South Blue Phoenix Peppers, he might have been in trouble. Those could supposedly cause blindness if you got the juice in you eyes.

“Rinse your eyes out with water, Usopp,” I said as I passed. “Rolling around won’t help any.”

“It burns!!” he shrieked.

I sighed, and suddenly a piece of paper floated past. It must have fallen out of Nami's newspaper. “Eh? A flyer?” Luffy asked looking down at it as it landed. We all looked at it (minus Zoro who was sleeping in that adorable way he had) and quickly read what it said. I was a bit taken aback personally, but Luffy just threw his head back and roared with laughter. “Wow! Thirty million belli! We have become so popular!” he said holding up a wanted picture of himself.

I frowned a bit. ‘We’ wasn’t quite right. Luffy was the only one mentioned on the Wanted Poster. Though, really, I don’t think I minded much. The fewer fights I got in, the better. I didn’t need to risk my hands any more than necessary, and any fight could risk them despite the fact that I used my legs. “Don’t you understand anything at all?” Nami asked slapping her face with her palm. “This means that many people are looking forward to killing you! With this very high price, the marine base must do something for sure! This doesn’t include those pirate hunters!”

Luffy just laughed and then Usopp noticed something. “See? My picture is on this wanted list too!” He held it up to point to ‘his picture’ almost proudly.

“Just the picture of your back,” I said blandly. You couldn’t even tell it was him if you didn’t know that he always wore that bandanna.

“This is so exciting,” he continued, utterly ignoring me of course. “I am not a captain but my picture is spreading around the world.”

“We can’t waste our time in East Blue anymore,” Nami muttered thoughtfully. I could tell she was more than a little nervous about traveling with someone with such a high bounty but honestly, I was a bit worried she might turn us in and collect said bounty. I didn’t remotely trust her yet.

Luffy seemed to hear her just as easily as I did, though, “We are going to the Grand Line!” Usopp and I joined in his cheer. I, for one, couldn’t care less where we went but if it got me closer to my dream of finding All Blue than I was definitely for it.

“Hey!” Zoro called. When had he woken up? “I see an island over there.”

“You see an island?” Nami echoed as she turned to look at where Zoro was pointing. I rolled my eyes. Zoro might not have the best sense of direction, but he did know what an island looked like. “This means that we are very close to the Grand Line now. This island is the location of Logue Town, ‘The city of the beginning and the end.’ The legendary Gold Roger was born and executed in this town.”

“The place where the greatest pirate was executed…” Luffy repeated, never taking his eyes off the island that we were quickly approaching at several knots.

It didn’t take long at all for us to dock and disembark into Logue Town. It was definitely a large city. It was famous and could afford to keep everything in tiptop shape. There wasn’t even a speck of trash hanging around that I could see. Not to mention the ridiculous variety of people that passed by. “So,” I muttered taking a drag from my cigarette. “The pirate era began here.”

“I will go see the execution place,” Luffy announced.

“There must be a lot of food here,” I realized, already looking for signs for the market. Being the last island before the Grand Line, we had to stock up here or risk running out of food, and that was not something I was willing to do twice in one lifetime. We didn’t have a lot of extra room to fill up since we just had at Nami’s home island but I would fill the storage rooms to the brim _whenever_ I had the chance.

We quickly split up. Each of us having our own agenda and agreeing to meet back up later, though I had a feeling we’d have to search for Zoro. He would wander around forever and not know where he was going if we didn’t. There were hundreds of handsome guys that caught my eye and one woman that made me scoff in disgust at the horrible heart theme she had plastered all over her. How incredibly tacky.

I finally found the market and instantly went to the fresh fish section. My eyes widened at the sight of a huge somewhat rare fish on display. It looked vaguely familiar, but I wanted to be sure. “What kind of a fish is this? It looks really good.” It was clearly fresh, and it had no signs of any diseases like fin rot that would be an instant reason to turn it down.

“It’s an Elephant Trunk Tuna from the South Blue. I am the one who caught it!” the fisherman behind the counter said proudly.

“You caught it by yourself?” I echoed in amazement. The thing was as big as me, and it had to have been difficult to haul in. Not to mention that fish was only supposed to live in the South Sea. How did it get all the way here? “How did you catch a South Blue fish in East Blue?”

“Is this the first time you’ve been in this town?” the merchant asked. I nodded a little. “Since this is the place closest to the Grand Line the ocean currents bring fish here that are from all the other blues. It happens all the time. But, I swear on my honor as a fisherman it was fresh caught today. Do you want me to prepare a cut for you?”

I studied the fish for a moment. I could make some killer recipes from it. There had been some I had been dying to try but never had the right type of fish for. “No. I want to buy the whole fish,” I said grinning widely at it. That much meat would probably feed us for all of…two days considering how Luffy ate. But still, it wasn’t something I could pass up.

“Thank you! You are so kind!” the merchant said grabbing the fish from its display.

I turned to look for anything else I might want when I spotted a familiar bandanna and long nose. “Eh? Why is Usopp in the market?” I asked myself aloud.

Usopp didn’t seem to notice me as he bent down to by the almost outdated eggs. “Wow! These eggs are so cheap!” I felt my eyebrow twitch. Why the hell was he trying to buy almost useless eggs?! Because they were cheap? That was the sort of thing a haggard housewife on a budget would do!

“Usopp, sweetie, what are you doing?” I asked lightly.

He looked up. “Sonya! What are you doing here?!”

“Where else would I be?” I asked back. “I’m restocking our supplies. But I’m glad you’re here. I need some help,” I said jutting my lip out in a slight pout. “Do you think you could be an angel and help me out, Usopp?”

He practically melted, “S-sure…”

“Good. Cause these Elephant Trunk Tuna are really heavy.” I pointed to the freshly paper-wrapped fish and Usopp’s eyes popped out a bit.

“Y-you bought that whole thing?”

“Yep! It’s gonna be delicious don’t you worry!” I handed the merchant the money Nami had given me for supplies (very begrudgingly, I might add) and grabbed the tail of the fish. “You can take the front end, Usopp. Come on, we need to get this baby back to the ship so I can butcher it up right.”

Usopp groaned a bit but obediently heaved the front end of the fish over his shoulder. We started walking, though Usopp seemed to be having a harder time with the fish than I was. He really needed to work out more. It was only a few hundred pounds. “I’m so lucky I ran into you, Usopp,” I commented looking around. I blinked at the glimpse I got of the next street over. “I just saw a lion with a guy who was wearing a teddy bear hat,” I couldn’t help but say. It wasn’t every day you saw something that odd.

We came to an intersection right by the execution platform just as Nami and Zoro reached it. I blinked in surprise at our unusually good fortune. I was expecting to have to look all over to find the others again. But there was one key member still not here. “Where is he?” Zoro asked.

“He said that he was going to see the execution place,” Nami said shifting the incredibly large bag of whatever it was over her shoulder.

“Execution place,” Usopp echoed. “Isn’t it right here?”

We all turned to look and instantly spotted Luffy. Really, it wasn’t hard when he was on top of the platform pinned down with a wooden board. “What is he doing on that execution stake!?” Zoro demanded as Usopp just wordlessly freaked out.

“Oh, this so figures…” I muttered. So much for our good luck streak…

“Because this pirate, Monkey D. Luffy, has upset me, he must be executed!!” Some weird clown roared from where he was standing on the board Luffy was on. His crew of equally clown-like pirates cheered and started shooting off their guns and creating a general ruckus.

“Hmm… it would probably be bad form to let our captain die,” I commented tying up my hair and jabbing it with the chopsticks I always carried in my boot. Once again I was caught without pants on and had to fight in a skirt… maybe I should just suck it up and start wearing pants…

“You are the one who is going to be executed!” the clown roared at Luffy.

“What? Don’t say something stupid!” Luffy screamed.

“You are stupid, not me!” the clown snapped. “And now, I would like to begin the execution in front of you all!”

I dropped the end of the fish that I was carrying. “Usopp and Nami get back to the boat. We’ll handle stuff here,” Zoro told them and they quickly dashed off towards the docks. We started weaving through the crowd that had formed. The civilians really didn’t matter. Just those idiot pirates holding our captain mattered.

“ **I… am the person who will become the Pirate King**!”

There was silence and then muttering. I wasn’t able to be surprised by Luffy’s shout anymore. He was so set on his goal I knew he would never give up on it. Not even when threatened with death. I saw the clown raise his sword high above his head. “Stop that!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

“Sonya! Zoro!!” Luffy shouted happily.

“Finally, you’ve come, Zoro, but you are too late!” The clown snapped.

I didn’t have time to question how the clown knew Zoro as he started running for the stake. I was a few steps behind him, but I was faster and was soon right next to him. “We have to hurry and destroy that stake!”

“I know!” I snapped, weaving around people as best I could and still keeping on a straight (ish) path. Stupid people really needed to get out of my way. The pirates around the base of the stake rushed us. “Get out of my way!” I flung my leg out, knocking several pirates down as Zoro unsheathed his swords to cut through some others.

“All of you be prepared and watch! Because this is the end of your captain’s life!” the clown shouted as he started his sword on its massive swing down towards Luffy’s neck.

“Damn it!” I shouted leaping forward and swinging both of my legs around in a complex twister of feet before vaulting myself further. I had to destroy that damn stake!

“Zoro! Sonya! Usopp! Nami!” I looked up at Luffy’s shout. “Sorry! But I don’t think that I will survive this time,” he said with an insane grin as the clown’s sword sliced downwards.

“Don’t say that!!” I shouted desperately.

Suddenly there was a huge boom as a bolt of lightning split the sky and hit the execution stake dead on. I actually sprung back in shock. “Ouch.” My eyes widened as Luffy got up from the wreckage. “My hat.” He put it on his head from where it had fallen to the ground, laughing and completely oblivious to the shock around him. It was pouring rain, but nobody seemed to notice. “Lucky! I am safe now!”

I blinked as my mind struggled to process what had happened. Luffy looked perfectly fine while the clown was fried on the ground next to him. Suddenly, it clicked. Luffy was made of rubber and rubber was an insulator. He couldn’t be electrocuted. I turned to Zoro. “Hey! Do you believe in God?” Because that right there was some miracle level shit.

“Don’t say something stupid. Let’s get out of this town before those Marines come,” he said sheathing his swords. I noticed he had replaced the two Mihawk had destroyed.

“Surround and close all the streets! Let’s arrest them!”

“Shit! Here they come! Let’s go!” I turned on heel and bolted. Zoro and Luffy seemed to agree, and we were racing towards the nearest exit.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Zoro demanded.

“To the ship of course!” I snapped. “Where else do we have to go?! We’re in a marine controlled town!”


	22. Enter the Grand Line

“What a heavy storm,” Zoro said glancing up at the rain that was pouring down from the dark sky. 

“They’re still following us. Should we stop and fight them?” Luffy asked from slightly behind Zoro and me.

I could hear them back there. It sounded like a real rabble of marines. A whole bunch of weaklings but they would still take time to defeat them all. Time we didn’t really have. Now that everyone wasn’t getting their heads chopped off we had to get out of the town before some of the Marine Officers found us. The last thing we needed was to try and defeat a whole bunch of Officers. They were a bit tougher than a regular Marine. “No,” I said, finally answering Luffy’s question. “It’s worthless. Besides, Roe-for-brains told us to get back to the ship as soon as possible. You don’t want her to leave us here do you?”

Suddenly, I noticed a black haired girl with a sword that looked slightly oversized for her standing in front of us. “Roronoa Zoro!” she shouted. I glanced at the green haired hunk. Why was she calling out Zoro? “I’ve never thought that you would be Roronoa Zoro! You must be so proud that you can trick me! I can’t forgive you now!”

My head snapped towards Zoro again. “What the hell? What’s between you and that girl?” My jealous nature did not like this situation at all. I had already called Zoro for mine! I had dibs! He just hadn’t come around yet.

Unfortunately, he ignored my questions. “So, you are a marine?” he called up to the girl. We were still running; we didn’t have time to stop and chat.

“I will take Wadou Ichimonji from you,” she said sternly. The whaty-whatnow?

“Try it if you can,” Zoro replied with that sexy little smirk he had. Damn, I did not like this girl! “You go first!” he shouted. I wasn’t sure if he was referring to the girl or us but a second later their swords slammed together with a huge clang.

I would have stopped and fought the girl for attacking Zoro like that, but Luffy grabbed me by my collar as we ran past them, not letting me stop. “I’ll beat her in ten seconds flat!”

“Let’s go,” Luffy ordered dragging me past when I would have turned. I nearly choked. I had forgotten how much stronger he was than he looked. After a few feet, he finally let go of my collar, and I rubbed my throat with one hand. I resisted the urge to cough. It was incredibly rude of him to pull me by my shirt like that.

We had run for several minutes before we noticed someone standing off in the distance, directly where we needed to go to get to the docks. “Who is standing there?” Luffy asked since the person was still too far away to see.

As we got closer, I could make out a tall man with white hair a marine coat and a huge weapon on his back. His coat was open, revealing a sculpted chest. “Who’s the hottie?” I muttered. Two cigars were in the mystery man’s mouth, and I couldn’t help but wonder just how talented he was with that mouth to have two at once like that. He definitely peaked my interests.

“My name is Smoker. I am the Major of the Marine Main Base,” he informed as we got within normal fighting range. “I won’t allow you to get out of here!” Smoker shouted, and suddenly his arms burst into streams of white smoke. The smoke grabbed Luffy around the waist and hauled him off the ground.

My eyes widened in shock. There was no way smoke could lift someone. It wasn’t a solid object! I knew smoke, damn it! It wasn't possible. “What is this?”

I dashed forward towards Smoker. I didn’t care how sexy he was at the moment. He was attacking my adorable Captain. I swung my foot out towards his head. “You son of a-” I cut off with a sound of shock as my foot went right through his head, letting loose another plume of smoke. “H-huh?”

His face reformed beside my foot without a scratch. “Don’t mess with me, you weakling!” he growled. “White Blow!” He made to punch me, but his arm turned to smoke before it hit me.

Strangely, the force seemed to increase, and I went flying backward. I cried out as my back, which was still sore from Pearl, slammed into the wall of the building behind me. I heard Luffy shout. I put a hand to my head and shook it some. I had not been ready for a hit like that. Not by a long shot. “So, your head is worth thirty million belli?”

I looked up and saw Smoker slam Luffy’s head into the ground hard. “You just have bad luck!” he said grabbing the handle of his huge weapon. I tried to get up, but my body wouldn’t cooperate fast enough. Someone grabbed the handle next to Smoker’s hand.

“I don’t think so.”

Smoker looked over at the man, and I saw his eyes widen in shock, “You!” I couldn’t really blame him. The man who’d grabbed him was tall and wearing a dark cloak over his whole body. Only a part of his face was visible, and there seemed to be a large tattoo over the left side of his face that looked rather like scales. After a moment, Smoker seemed to recover. “The government is looking for you!”

“The world is waiting for our answer,” the tattooed man replied.

There was a sudden gust of wind that sent marines flying down the street. Someone screamed ‘storm!’ as everyone was blown away. I finally managed to get to my feet and ran after Luffy, who had slammed into the ground a little ways away from where he had just been. “Let’s go, Luffy! Before they close this island!” Zoro yelled running up through the scattered Marines. “And the storm is getting heavier! Hurry up!”

Zoro grabbed Luffy and dragged him behind as he ran. I hurried after, ignoring the slight twinge of discomfort in my back from how hard I had hit the wall. “So, this must be what Roe-idiot was talking about!”

“Ah! What? What’s happening?” Luffy asked as he bounced around behind our first mate.

I heard the tattooed man laughing behind us. “Go! It is your destiny!”

I glanced back but didn’t stop. This was turning into one very weird day. First, Luffy almost gets executed. Then, the execution was stopped by a lightning bolt. Then, some marine that was rather hot but could turn into smoke attacked us. And now some other guy with a tattooed face saved Luffy from being bludgeoned and was saying something about destiny. At least we were almost at the Merry.

“Luffy!” Usopp shouted, obviously panicked as usual. “Hurry up! I almost lost my strength to hold this rope!”

“What heavy rain!” Luffy said as if suddenly noticing that it was raining.

“Hurry up! We have to go now!” Nami shouted at us.

“Shut up! We’re here aren’t we?” I snapped back. It wasn’t as if she’d had to fight her way through marines to save our captain. She’d had it easy. She had no right to tell us to hurry. I took a leap and landed neatly on the Merry’s deck. Luffy and Zoro were right behind me and as soon as we landed Usopp let go of the last rope and we were free from the dock.

Nami quickly started snapping out navigation orders, and we sprang into action. The waves were beyond rough and several ships in the port were being crashed against the piers. The rain made it a bit difficult to see, but we managed to get free and clear with little other troubles.

Once we were in the open sea, all we had to worry about was the size of the waves and not falling off. “Ah! Will our ship sink?” Usopp asked grabbing tightly to the mast. Nobody bothered to answer him. This was the first time that the Merry had been in a storm like this. We couldn’t predict if the ship would survive.

I took a moment to try and light a cigarette, but the wind and rain kept it from lighting. With a sigh, I sat down on the railing, perched on top with my legs crossed. At least I wasn’t as bad as Luffy though. He was sitting on the railing tailor style with one hand keeping his hat in place.

We had been sailing for only a few minutes when the storm winds pushed us far enough to see a light in the distance. “Look at that light!” Usopp said pointing at it before going back to clinging to the mast.

“A lighthouse,” I stated as we quickly sailed closer.

“That’s a guiding light. And the end of the light, it is the entrance to the Grand Line,” Nami said leaning against the railing as well to get a better look at it. She turned to look at the rest of us with a slight smile. “So?”

I smiled and pushed myself off the railing to walk over to where I had stashed a barrel of rum from the Baratie under the stairs. I pulled it out and put it right in the middle of the deck. “Shall we begin the ceremony for entering the Grand Line?” I asked, still smiling. I had dreamed about things like this since I was a kid. There was no way I could not do things properly. Even if an entire barrel of rum was to be sacrificed. I could chalk it up to temporary insanity later on.

“Don’t you feel anything in the middle of a storm?!” Usopp demanded as Zoro and Luffy gathered around. Even Nami came over before Usopp reluctantly joined us around the barrel as well.

We all put a heel on the top of the barrel. “I want to find All Blue,” I said, unable to keep the grin off my face.

“I want to become the Pirate King!”

“I want to become an invincible swordsman.”

“I want to draw a map of the entire world.”

“I want to become a brave warrior of the sea!”

We all raised our feet, though the others seemed to be having a little bit of awkwardness in the stretch. Lucky I was so used to it. “Let’s go to the Grand Line!” We all brought our feet down and shattered the barrel as one unit. Rum spilled across the deck and was quickly washed away by the heavy rain, but it didn’t matter because we were almost at the Grand Line. Our dreams were starting to come true.

Usopp quickly gathered the broken barrel and whisked it down below, probably so that he could recycle it for one of his inventions. Luffy, grinning like the mad man he was, leapt over to the front of the ship again to watch our progress. I shook my head some. “Luffy! At least put on a raincoat!” Luffy, ignored me, and I rolled my eyes before going into the galley and grabbing several raincoats from the hooks by the door.

Everyone but me slipped them on. Well, me and Luffy but as I was staying in the galley for a moment and he was just stupid. I wanted to make sure that everything breakable was surviving these waves. And I could use a cigarette, which the rain made difficult. I quickly lit one and started examining the dishes. It would be a pain to replace things so soon.

Luckily, everything seemed to be more or less intact. A few plates had been chipped, but it was nothing serious. I had just finished when everyone came into the galley, all but Nami shedding their coats and hanging them on the pegs. Without a second thought, I poured four glasses of water and set them down on the table in front of my crewmates. As if we were back on the Baratie and they were customers. Nobody seemed to notice though as they sat down.

Nami pulled out a map and laid it on the table as Luffy tried to drink his water without using his hands for some odd reason. “It seems that the entrance to the Grand Line is a mountain,” she stated slapping the map with one hand. We all froze and stared at her.

“ **Mountain**!?” Usopp echoed loudly, his head tilting so far to one side I wondered how his neck didn’t break.

“Yes. At first, I thought that it’s impossible. But look at this,” she pointed to the map, and we all leaned a bit closer. “The place where the guiding light is pointing to is Reverse Mountain on Red Line.”

“What? Do you mean that we will hit the mountain?” Zoro asked curiously.

Nami shook her head slightly. “No. It’s not like that! Can you see a canal here?” She pointed to the thin line going to the middle of the mountain we were headed right towards.

“A canal?” Usopp echoed. “Don’t be stupid. Even though there is a canal, there is no way that a ship can go up that mountain.”

“But that’s what the map says!” Nami argued.

I took a long inhale from my cigarette. “Old geezer Zeff did say that the Grand Line was full of weird stuff. Who’s to say the entrance to a weird place wouldn’t be weird too?” I asked. It made sense in a roundabout way. Not that I really wanted to run into a mountain to test a theory.

“You stole that map from Buggy, right? Are you sure that it’s accurate?” Zoro asked.

“Use a ship to cross a mountain?” Luffy asked looking at the map as if he could actually read it. “Sounds interesting! The magic mountain!”

Zoro closed his eyes some. “I want to ask you something. What is the reason of going to the Grand Line by using this entrance? If you head south you can go to the Grand Line too, right?”

“That’s a bad idea, Zoro!” Luffy snapped.

“Luffy’s right! There is a reason for this-“

“We’re supposed to go to the Grand Line with this entrance because it is cool!!” Luffy declared loudly.

“That’s not the reason,” Nami growled punching him in the back of the head.

I frowned some and suddenly realized how quiet it was outside. It had been raging with a storm just a minute ago. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one as Usopp went to the window and looked out. “Look! The storm has gone,” he said.

I glanced over and saw the bright blue sky and fluffy white clouds. “Yes. The weather is so calm now.”

“That’s impossible. If we head towards the storm, we will arrive at the entrance,” Nami muttered as we all headed outside into the clear yet utterly still air.

“Wow! Nice weather!” Luffy said waving his arms around.

“What happened here?”

“We are in deep trouble now!” Nami gasped from up by the galley door. “This place must be the ‘Calm Belt.’”

I stared at her for a minute. Why did that sound familiar… “Calm Belt?” I asked, hoping to jog my memory. I know I had heard that somewhere before…

“What is it?” Zoro asked lazily.

“Ah! Look! There’s still a heavy storm over there! But this side is so calm and doesn’t have any wind,” Usopp declared pointing behind us at the dark clouds looming so close and yet so far away. It didn’t seem natural at all. Storms just didn’t end like that.  

“Just shut up and prepare to row!” Nami shouted down at us. “We will go back to the storm!”

“Yell a little louder would ya? I don’t think North Blue heard,” I drawled, rather annoyed at her tone of voice. We weren’t her dogs after all. Would it kill her to use manners every once and a while?

“Why do we have to hurry? You told us to row the ship, but this in not a rowboat,” Luffy pointed out. He had a point. It wouldn’t be all that easy to move this ship with just a few paddles that we had laying around.

Usopp pouted some up at her. “Why do we have to go back to the storm?”

“Just shut up and do it!” Nami screeched.

“It’s nice weather here. Why do we have to go back there?” Zoro asked looking up at the sky.

Nami the banshee didn’t seem to like that. “I am going to explain it to you! Now, the ship is heading south as you wanted!” she yelled, pointing to Zoro accusingly.

“Oh, so we are in the Grand Line now?” Zoro asked looking around.

“If it were that easy, then there would be many people coming here!” Nami snapped. I really wish she’d just calm down and tell us what the big deal was. All the yelling was giving me a headache. “Grand Line is surrounded by two seas. And one of the seas is the ‘Calm Belt’, the sea without wind.”

Zoro made his way down to the main deck, still looking around casually. “You’re right. There’s no wind at all. So what?”

“Because this sea is-”

Suddenly there was a huge rumble, and I bent my knees to keep from falling over. “AHH! An earthquake?!” Luffy yelled.

“Don’t be stupid! We are in the middle of the ocean!” Usopp snapped back at him.

We were lifted straight into the air, and I hurried to the railing to look around. My eyes widened at the sight of dozens of sea monsters appearing, one of which was wearing our ship on its nose. We all screamed; it wasn’t something that could be helped. The monsters were huge and more than a little threatening looking.

Usopp foamed at the mouth and fell over in a dead faint while Nami clung to the mast for dear life. “This Sea is the Sea King’s nest!” she finally finished her explanation. Though it was a bit late for that.

Some of the monsters started swimming away but the one whose nose we were on turned his head, maybe it had noticed we were there. Not a comforting thought. Zoro, Luffy, and I each grabbed the oars and went to the railing. “When the monster dives, let’s begin rowing as fast as we can. Get it!?”

“Yes!” Luffy and I agreed instantly.

The monster started shifting, and I frowned in confusion as he tossed his head. Suddenly, we were rocketed forward as the monster sneezed. “What the!?” We all dropped the oars as we were sent flying through the air. “Hold on tight!”

“To what?!” I shouted back as I tried to grab some ropes or the mast or anything.

I finally managed to grab hold of a net and gripped it tight. “Aaah! The giant frog is following us!” Luffy shouted as he wrapped his arms around the mast. “Usopp is falling! **Usopp**!”

Luffy shot his arm out and grabbed the sharp shooter’s overalls right as the giant frog with the underbite was about to swallow him up. Luffy’s arm snapped back, and we sailed away from the monsters to come splashing back in the middle of the storm. The thrashing waves were almost a welcome thing compared to those monsters. Some of them had bigger eyes than the entire Merry.

We all collapsed on the deck, drained from the adrenaline that had pulsed through our bodies at the scare. “We are safe now! We have come back to the storm,” Luffy said huffing slightly to catch his breath. That was a strange sentence to hear.

“Do you understand why we have to use the entrance now?” Nami asked, though her voice was muffled from laying face first on the deck. Much like I was.

“Yes, I understand now,” Zoro replied dully.

“I got it!” Nami said suddenly.

“What?” Zoro asked sounding a touch suspicious. I didn’t blame him. If I had the energy for it, I’d be suspicious too.

“We have to go up the mountain,” Nami said.

I looked over at her. Was she serious? Did she not understand that water only flows downhill? “Are you still thinking about that?” Zoro muttered.

“If the waves from four oceans head to that mountain, it will create a stream!” she declared. “That stream will push the water up the canal, and when the water has reached the mountain’s peak, it will push back into the Grand Line by the stream’s power! The only problem left is how to control the rudder. Reverse Mountain is like a huge iceberg. When the stream hit the mountain, the water will go down. If we can’t control our ship to the entrance, we will hit the mountain and sink. Do you understand?”

Luffy laughed triumphantly. “So, that means it’s a magic mountain, right?”

Nami sighed. “It seems that you don’t understand it.”

“I suppose you have your uses after all, Roe-head,” I muttered.

“I’ve never heard that a ship can climb up a mountain,” Zoro protested calmly.

I glanced over with a small smile. I did so love his cool-headedness in potentially dangerous situations. “I have heard something about it,” I said.

He looked over. “What? About the magic mountain?”

“No. I heard a story about the Grand Line. They said that it is very tough even to get in there. So, I realize that going to the Grand Line isn’t an easy job,” I stated. “I wasn’t really thinking it was something like sailing up a mountain, though.”

“I see the magic mountain! It is very huge!” Luffy shouted suddenly, drawing our attention back to what we were supposed to be doing.

“Wait! What is that shadow back there?” Usopp asked, his mouth falling wide open in terror.

“So…” I drawled staring ahead at the massive wall of rock in front of us. “Is that the Red Line?” Although I vaguely remembered seeing the Red Line before, it had been many years ago now.

“There is a fog surrounding it. We can’t see anything!” Usopp wailed. I took the lack of an answer for my question to mean I was right.

“Take a deep breath and hold the rudder tight!” Luffy shouted suddenly.

Me and Usopp instantly grabbed the thick wooden pole that was decorated with a ram’s head on top that matched the Merry’s figurehead. “Leave that job to us!” Usopp shouted back.

“The entrance of the canal!” Luffy shouted. “It’s getting off route now! Turn right! Right!”

“Right!” We pulled the rudder to follow the order. “The rudder is so heavy!” Usopp said as we struggled with it.

Suddenly, the entire rudder handle snapped off, and I was stumbling back into a box. “ **Shit**! The rudder is broken!”

“We are going to hit the gate!”

“ **Rubber Balloon**!” Luffy shouted.

I ran out onto the deck and saw Luffy between us and the thick gate. The boat lurched some before bouncing off and back into the main flow of the canal. “We are safe!” Nami shouted happily.

“Take my hand, Luffy!” Zoro shouted, extending his hand behind us.

Luffy shot his hand forward and grabbed him. His body snapped over a moment later, and he slammed headfirst into the deck. Usopp grabbed me around the neck and started spinning and cheering, and I laughed as we almost went flying off the deck. “We did it!”

Suddenly, the whole ship was airborne as we reached the top of the mountain. “Yahoo!!” Luffy yelled from his seat on the top of Merry’s head. “We are going down now! I see the Grand Line!”


	23. Look out for that Whale!

“This is the largest sea in the world!” Luffy shouted as he put a hand over his eyes to see in front of us. The wind pulled my hair free from the bun I had put it in and it whipped out behind me as we raced down the side of Reverse Mountain. Me and Usopp were still sitting up on the top of the sail from where we had gone to tie up the sails while the others were on the deck. “Let’s go!!” Luffy shouted again.

“BO!”

I frowned some at the strange noise. I’d never heard anything like that before. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one to notice it. “Hey!” I heard Zoro say from down below. “Did you hear something?”

“Maybe it’s the wind,” Nami suggested casually. “I guarantee that you will find a very different atmosphere here.”

“Don’t worry about it! Let’s go!” Luffy shouted, throwing his fist forward and grinning like the mad man he was. His hat was nearly blown away from how fast the wind whipped past, but somehow it managed to stay on.

“BO!”

There was that strange noise again. It was kinda creepy actually. Usopp pulled one of his goggles down from his bandanna and flipped up the tinted lens. He spun the ring around the outside. Apparently, it worked like some sort of binoculars. “There’s something ahead…” he muttered so softly I could only just hear him. And if I couldn’t hear him Nami and the others definitely couldn’t.

“Nami! There’s a mountain blocking our way, what is it?” I called pointing in front of us.

She turned some to look up at me. “Mountain? That’s impossible! If we get through this passage, there should be only sea!”

I scowled a bit. “Well check your maps again cause something is there!”

Luffy’s smile faded, and he looked in front of us in more earnest, trying to see what Usopp had seen, and I could only just make out in the distance from my vantage point. “BO!”

Suddenly, the mist cleared and what I had assumed to be a mountain seemed to warp into something else. “It’s not a mountain! But a giant whale!!” Nami shouted in utter horror. The thing was blocking the canal’s entire exit. Scars littered its head, and each one of its teeth were bigger than the Merry and looked deadly sharp.

“BO!”

The whale was making that weird sound! “What are we gonna do? Fight?” Luffy asked as we all started to panic.

“Are you nuts?” Nami demanded. Though it was a pretty silly question once you thought about it. Of course, he was nuts. You had to be nuts to want to become the Pirate King. “How can we fight a giant whale?”

I had to admit she had a point there. The thing was huge. “But it’s blocking our way!” Luffy pointed out just as loudly as before.

“Wait a minute!” I said gripping the mast tightly so I wouldn’t fall off. “As we get closer it sure looks like a wall! Where are its eyes?” I asked.

“Yes, maybe it doesn’t know that we are here!” Nami said.

“But we’re gonna hit it!” Zoro yelled. “We will be safe if we can get through that passage on the left! Someone control the rudder!” he shouted pointing to a narrow opening on the left, between the whale and the rock wall.

“But the rudder broke!” Usopp snapped.

“We have to do something! I’ll help!” Zoro said, vaulting over the railing to hurry back to where the rudder was. I jumped down from my perch, intent on helping them so that we don’t become a Merry and Pirate pancake.

“Yes!” Luffy shouted suddenly, that wild look coming back to his eyes. “I’ve come up with some good ideas!” I almost groaned. His ‘good ideas’ were never all that good. I ignored him for the moment, though. We had to turn the boat. I grabbed what was left of the rudder handle along with Usopp and Zoro-kun.

“Move rudder! **Move**!!” Usopp grit out as we strained to make even a slight adjustment to the course of the boat.

“It’s not working!” I growled, pushing as hard as I could against it. I was strong enough that I should be able to move it by myself, but we were just going too fast through the water, and we didn’t have enough leverage.

Suddenly, there was a huge explosion, and the ship jerked a bit before slowing. I froze in shock, a nervous laugh escaping me. “A cannon!” we said together in equal amounts of shock. When on earth had we gotten a **cannon**!?!?! Better yet, who had fired it!?!

“Hmm…now the ship is stopping,” I heard Luffy say.

I almost whimpered. I didn’t like the idea of Luffy using the cannon. It could only end badly. We hadn’t slowed down enough, though. We still slammed headfirst into the whale, breaking off the Going Merry’s figurehead. It nearly bludgeoned Nami, which would have been fun to see. But having our ship break apart would not have been. The collision knocked us all on our asses with a thud, sending shards of pain up my back to collect where Pearl had crushed me. If I ever saw that bastard again… he was dead.

“My special seat!!” Luffy shouted as he saw the sheep’s head fly backward through the air.

Suddenly, I saw a huge eye staring at us. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one. Our screams could probably be heard all the way back in the North Blue. “N… Now let’s get out of here!” Zoro shouted.

“I agree!” I screamed, scrambling to my feet. “Let’s move!”

“What is happening? Doesn’t this whale feel that cannon ball he was hit by?” Usopp asked.

“Is it a stupid whale?” Luffy asked.

“How can we know? Let’s get out of here first!” Zoro replied as we ran to get the oars. With the sails rolled up and the rudder broke we’d have to row ourselves away from the behemoth of a whale.

“ **BO**!” the whale called again. It was so loud I could swear my ears were bleeding from it.

“Ouch!!” Usopp screamed. “That sound is breaking my ears!”

“Everyone row!! Hurry up so we can get away from this guy!” Zoro said as we slid the oars into the water and we started trying to move the Merry away from the whale as fast as we could.

“You… destroyed… my special seat!!” Luffy shouted from the deck above us.

I looked up in time to see his arm rocketing forward and punching the whale dead in the eye. My jaw dropped open in shock that he’d actually done something that stupid. Though, honestly, by now it shouldn’t surprise me. “You **idiot**!!” We shouted at him just before the whale looked down and I could see the difference between what I had thought was staring at us before and what it meant to really be stared at by a giant whale. “ **He’s looking at us**!” It was terrifying. The Merry could fit in his eye probably five times easily.

“Come and get a piece of me, you stupid whale!” Luffy shouted.

“Shut up!” Zoro and Usopp yelled as they kicked him in the back of the head.

Suddenly, the whale opened his mouth, creating a huge rapid into his throat. We could now definitely be heard in the North Blue as we were rushed forward. All we could do was scream and hold on. Luffy went careening off the side. “ **Luffy**!”

But we didn’t have a chance to catch him as we went swirling down a vortex that was also known as the whale’s throat. I grabbed onto the ship’s railing for dear life as it went completely dark. Water splashed and the ship was thrown around like a rag doll before we finally came to a stop with a huge splash. I panted some, surprised we were still alive, as my eyes adjusted and then widened in shock.

There was no way we were in a whale’s stomach. It was just impossible. I reached into my pocket to get my cigarette case. Might as well have nicotine while I go crazy in my last few minutes of life. I lit the end with my lighter as Nami pushed herself up from the deck and Zoro pried himself out of the rope he had fallen into. Usopp was in a dead faint again.

I looked around as I took an inhale. I let the outward show of shock slide off as I exhaled the smoke. Nami had succeeded in shaking Usopp awake, and we all went to the railing to stare. “What do you think?” I asked Zoro.

“What do I think?” Zoro echoed.

“Yes, I distinctly remember being swallowed by a whale and yet…” I gestured to the scene in front of us with my hand holding my cigarette. The little cottage on an island with the pretty clouds on blue sky and seagulls were distinctly out of place. “Is this a dream?” I asked.

“Yes,” he agreed. “Maybe it is a dream.”

“So, what about that island and house?” Nami demanded.

I shrugged. “An illusion maybe?”

Suddenly, a huge squid surfaced in front of us. “What about this?” Zoro questioned, entirely unconcerned.

“ **A giant squid**!” Usopp and Nami screamed, running away from the railing even as me and Zoro got ready. But before we could do anything, three huge harpoons went straight through the squid’s head, killing it instantly.

“Someone is here,” Zoro stated.

I smirked some and took another inhale. “I hope he’s a handsome man. Not that anybody could be better looking than you, Zoro-kun.”

“Stop that,” he grumbled.

“Where is Luffy?” I heard Usopp whine.

“I wanna go home…” Nami whimpered.

Three cables attached to the harpoons started dragging the giant squid towards the house. It was a bit creepy actually. “Are the harpoons coming from that island?” Usopp demanded, pointing to the house accusingly.

“Wait!” I snapped. “There’s someone coming out of that house.” I narrowed my eyes as I watched the figure step out into the light. “A flower!” I said in shock. I couldn’t help but point to the strange sight. It was one of those things that just brought out that kind of reaction.

“A flower!?” Zoro echoed.

“Oh wait…no, he’s a human,” I corrected myself when I got a better look at him. He was an old man with strange hair that was almost exactly like flower petals. He was wearing an old Islander shirt, shorts, and sandals. Still, he looked rather rough and tumble, and I could see several scars over his body.

“That old man is the one who shot that squid?” Usopp asked.

I thought it was fairly obvious as the old man was pulling the squid by the harpoons but I decided not to say anything about that. What I couldn’t help but mention though was how…normal the man seemed. “The person who saved us is just a regular fisherman?” Well, saved might be giving him too much credit. We had taken down mermen I’m pretty sure a giant squid wouldn’t be too bad.

The man looked over at us for a long moment before he went over to a beach chair and sat down with a newspaper. My temper instantly snapped at the way he ignored us. “You could at least say hello, asshole! What kinda manners is that!?”

He just looked at us, barely even moving. “If you want to fight us, we aren’t scared of you!” Usopp declared. “We have a cannon!”

“…don’t even think about it or someone will die,” the old man said, finally speaking.

I smirked a little. “Who’s going to die, old man?” Usopp was right after all. We could easily take on an old man with a giant flower for hair.

“Me,” he stated.

I hit my face with one hand before glaring at him. “Stop pissing me off! God! Old people!” First Zeff, now this guy? Why did old geezers have to be such a pain in the ass anyway?

“Calm down,” Zoro said waving at me a little.

“He’s insulting me, Zoro-kun,” I said, giving an annoyed exhale of smoke.

“Who are you and what is this place? Can you tell us?” Zoro asked, completely ignoring what I said. I supposed his questions were important, so I’d forgive him for ignoring me like that.

The man stared for a moment. “Before you ask questions, shouldn’t you introduce yourself first?” he asked.

“You’re right,” Zoro said. “Sorry.”

But before Zoro could actually introduce himself the old man started speaking. “My name is Crocus. I am seventy-one years old, Pisces sign, AB blood type. I am a caretaker of the Futako Mizaki City’s lighthouse.”

“Should I kill him now?!” Zoro snapped.

I patted him on the shoulder gently. “Calm down,” I mocked lightly.

“You asked me what is this place?” Crocus asked, apparently ignoring us like the rude bastard he was. “You were swallowed by the giant whale and brought to my one man resort! Do you think this is a rat’s stomach?”

“We were really eaten by that giant whale…” Usopp whimpered.

“What are we going to do?” Nami asked, one hand on either side of her head. “I don’t want to be digested!”

“An exit is right over there,” Crocus said pointing just past us.

We turned to look at where he was pointing, and sure enough, there was a massive door in the middle of what I first thought was the sky. “You have an exit too?”

“There’s sky over the door,” Nami said. “And there are clouds in the sky.”

Before I could say anything Usopp took care of it. “It’s a picture. A picture on this whale’s stomach.”

I frowned some and looked at the walls of the stomach a bit closer. I knew a few things about digestion, and I was pretty sure coating the inside of anything’s stomach was a very bad idea. That’s where all the nutrients are absorbed through. Or, most of them anyway.

“This whale is very playful,” Crocus said suddenly.

“What are you doing in here?” Usopp demanded, also losing his temper with the (quite clearly insane) old man.

“Don’t worry about him,” Zoro said, putting a hand on Usopp’s shoulder. “Let’s get out of here.”

Suddenly, everything started moving, and the water started getting churned up into huge waves. “What is happening?”

“It begins,” Crocus stated all cryptically and shit.

The waves threw everything around so much the entire island Crocus was standing on came up and I could spot that it wasn’t an island at all. It had a metal hull underneath. “Look! It’s not an island, but a ship made of iron!”

“So, if we stay here for a long time, our ship will be destroyed!”

“Hey!” Usopp called to Crocus who was still standing there as if nothing was happening at all. “What’s beginning? Tell us!”

“This whale is using its head to hit the Red Line,” Crocus answered.

“What?” Me and Zoro both said at the same time. It was adorable how that happened.

“Yes, I saw many scars on his forehead,” Nami stated. “Besides, he pulled his head up to the sky and cried!”

“What’s that mean?” Usopp asked.

“He must be sad!” Nami declared.

I rolled my eyes. “Brilliant deduction, Roe-for-Brains,” I muttered. Honestly, with her around, I almost didn’t miss Luffy. Though Luffy was infinitely cuter.

“ **BO**!!”

I shook my head some as the sound echoed and made my ears ring. It was even louder from inside the whale than it was outside. “So, what is that old man doing in here?” Nami asked.

“He’s going to kill this whale from the inside! What a cruel person,” Usopp said.

I doubted that was it, but I didn’t much care either. Apparently, me and Zoro were having one of our connections. “The mystery is solved so let's get out of here,” he said firmly. “If we don’t hurry we could be digested,” he added when Nami and Usopp didn’t move from their positions by the railing.

“We aren’t whale hunters, and we don’t have any reason to save this whale. So, we should get out of here,” I told them. The whole place shook as, I assumed, the whale rammed the cliff again.

“We can reach the exit,” Zoro said pulling out the oars again.

“Hurry up!” I snapped at Usopp and Nami. “Or else us and Luffy could be in trouble! He must be outside because I saw him get out before we were swallowed!”

“Hey!” Usopp shouted, drawing my attention to where he was pointing at the suddenly empty island. “That old man jumped into the water.”

“What is he thinking?” I asked aloud. “He could be digested!!” Just because the guy was an asshole didn’t mean he should be digested by a whale.

“Maybe he’s heading for the exit,” Usopp suggested. “We’d better hurry up before the whale gets mad again.”

There was another huge collision, and I nearly fell over. I grabbed at the railing with a slight cry of surprise. Usually, I was able to keep my balance much better. Even in the roughest waves. “We have to row to get there. Hurry up!” Zoro ordered.

Suddenly there was a slam, and three people came flying out of a smaller door in the large one. They were, of course, flying right at us. The first two I didn’t recognize, but the third was a bit more familiar. The red vest and straw hat gave it away. “Luffy?” Zoro said with a sweat drop on the back of his head.

“Everyone’s safe?” Luffy asked as he flew through the air. “Anyways, save me first.”

All three of them splashed into the stomach acids, and I winced some. “Luffy and two strange humans,” Zoro said with a sigh. The three of them thrashed around in the stomach acids, crying for help. Luckily, the acid wasn’t that strong, and they could probably last for a few minutes without anything happening to them. Except for Luffy, who couldn’t swim.

“Look! That old man is escaping!” Usopp said pointing to the old man as he climbed up a ladder on the door.

“Don’t worry about him. We must save Luffy first!” Zoro said.

“ **BO**!”

There was another crash, and I grabbed the railing before I found a bunch of rope and tossed it to my captain. Usopp and Zoro took care of saving the other two. Like I said, not even assholes deserve to be slowly digested alive.

As I was pulling Luffy over the side of the Merry, everything went still again. “The whale has stopped,” Nami stated, looking up at the top of the whale’s stomach.

We looked down at the two weirdoes we had saved from a slow death. “So? Who are you?” Zoro asked blandly. The girl was obnoxious looking with her bright blue hair and swirly bodice thing that drew everyone’s eyes to her boobs. It was cheap. The guy wasn’t too much better. He wore a crown on his head, which was more than a little pompous and he had weird marks on him like the number nine.

“As long as I’m still alive, I won’t let anyone touch this whale!” The old man suddenly screamed. We turned and saw him standing in the doorway. Apparently, he hadn’t fled at all.

“Huh?” Luffy said smartly. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Suddenly, the strange duo started chuckling and picked up their bazookas. “But we are inside the whale now!” The guy said.

“That means we can destroy the stomach and get out of here!” The girl finished, and they both fired off huge bullets at the wall of the whale’s stomach. “You can’t stop us anymore!”

The old man ran to the side and leapt from his platform, taking both cannonball-sized bullets in the chest. My eyes widened some in surprise. Why on earth had he done something so reckless?! “He used himself as a shield to protect the whale,” Usopp said in awe as the man started falling towards the stomach acid.

“Is he protecting the whale?” Nami asked. I glared some at her. Did she not even listen to what Usopp said? Idiot.

The strange bazooka wielding couple laughed again. “It’s worthless. No matter what happens, this whale must be food for our town!”

“Why is that old man…”

“What’s happening here?” Nami demanded.

Clearly, we had stumbled across a larger situation. Suddenly, Luffy jumped past me and slammed his fists into the couple’s heads hard enough to send them slamming to the ground. “Anyway, let’s take care of them first!” I glanced over at Zoro before shrugging. I guess what was going on didn’t matter anymore. Our captain had made a clear decision. I went to grab some rope as I was pretty sure the two of them were knocked out for at least a few minutes. It didn’t take long at all to tie them up with their backs together. Their bazookas found a new home in a chest on deck that had been emptied by one of Luffy’s ravenous hungers and was now used to store extra supplies.

After they had been tied up, we started for the little island. We were going to get to the bottom of this. And the best way to do that was to ask the man who was so ready to die for the whale.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: My autocorrect kept wanting to change Mizaki into Miyazaki, which brought a smile to my face and a desire to watch Spirited Away.


	24. Laboon's Promise

“This is an Island Whale from West Blue,” Crocus told us once we’d finally got over to his ship-island thing. “It is the largest species of whale in this world. His name is Laboon. And these people are hooligans. They came from the town close to here. They are thinking of killing Laboon because Laboon’s meat can save them for two or three years.”

I noticed Luffy wasn't really listening (shocking, isn’t it?) he was far more interested in climbing the palm tree we’d gathered near. “But I won’t let them do that. There is a reason why he uses his head to hit Red Line and cry,” Crocus continued. “One day while I was taking care of the lighthouse a group of pirates came to Reverse Mountain with a little whale.

“It seems that those pirates always played with Laboon while they were in West Blue. But they realized that it would be a very dangerous journey so they decided to leave Laboon here. Island whales usually swim together with their nakama in pods, but for Laboon those pirates are his friends. Because their ship was broken, they stayed at this town, Mizaki, for two or three months. I was very close to them.

“When they decided to leave this town, they asked me to take care of Laboon for two or three years. They told me that they would travel around the world and come back here. Laboon has always understood this and always waits for his friends to return.”

“That’s why he’s crying for them and hitting his head against Red Line, so he can get to the other side,” Nami said softly.

“That’s right,” Crocus agreed. “It’s been fifty years now. He still believes that his friends are still alive.” The whole inside of Laboon seemed to shake as the whale let out another loud cry. I actually felt it tear at my heart a little. To wait so long for people who hadn’t come back. It was terrible.

Still, we couldn’t stay in Laboon’s stomach forever so after a brief break, we decided to ask Crocus how to get out in some non-disgusting way. He said he’d show us the way since the last time he’d just pointed hadn’t ended well. So, we took the captive weirdoes and Crocus used a part of his… island and we headed out.

“This waterway is very good. He has a big hole inside his body, but he’s still alive. Isn’t this because he is playful?” Crocus said as we sailed out.

I scoffed a bit and raised my cigarette again. “I somehow doubt that’s the reason…” I muttered. It was more likely because he was so bloody _huge_ that he could still be alive.

“It’s just my funny idea, but I am a doctor. When I used to stay at Mizaki I worked on a ship for two or three years,” Crocus said. What was with this guy and two or three? Every time he mentioned time it was two or three…

“A doctor?” Luffy said, growing excited again. “Can you become our Doctor, then?”

“Don’t be stupid,” Crocus said as he climbed up a ladder near the huge exit door. “I am not as strong as I used to be now.”

“You are a doctor, so, you are giving this whale medical treatment from inside his body, right?” Nami asked, leaning against the railing to watch Crocus go to the giant wheel by the door.

“Yes, because he’s getting too big for outside treatment now. Here, I’ll open the door for you,” Crocus said, grabbing the wheel and turning it so that the whole door creaked and groaned. As soon as the door opened water gushed out and the Merry was released onto the ocean.

“Ha! I see the real sky!!” Luffy shouted from up front. I glanced up at the sky, wondering how Crocus had known for sure Laboon hadn’t been underwater… I paled a bit as I thought of the possibility that maybe he hadn’t.

“What are we gonna do with these two?” Usopp asked, looking at the two people we’d brought with us.

“Just throw them out somewhere around here,” Zoro said dismissively.

I couldn’t find a real reason to have an issue with that, so I grabbed the girl and tossed her overboard as Usopp did the same with the man. I heard them cry out some when they hit the water, but their feet and hands hadn’t been bound so I knew they wouldn’t drown. Apparently, Luffy heard it too cause he looked over the side. “So, who are you?”

“It’s none of your business!” they shouted, and I rolled my eyes some. Like that really mattered to Luffy. But then they apparently changed their minds. “Wait, Ms. Wednesday. Even though it’s none of his business, we still have some relationship with pirates.”

“That’s right, Mr. Nine. It really involves our company,” the blue haired girl said. “You’d better be prepared!” she told us. Then, they took off swimming. “We will see you again soon, you countryside pirates! Crocus! One day, we will take that whale for sure!”

“Ms. Wednesday, huh?” I muttered staring after them. “What a trashy outfit…”

“Is it a good idea to let them get away?” Nami asked Crocus. “They can come back to kill the whale.”

“If we hold them here, they will send new guys to kill the whale anyway,” Crocus replied.

With that, we made our way to Mizaki where we could get our feet on solid land again. Once, we were there our conversation eventually returned to Laboon and his pirate friends. “But it’s been fifty years,” Usopp said. “He still believes that his friends will return?”

“Those pirates made this whale wait for them for a really long time,” Luffy commented from his seat against a large rock.

I frowned a bit and looked over at him. “Cupcake, don’t you remember this is the Grand Line?” I asked. “They said that they’ll come back in two or three years, but it’s already been fifty. He should know the answer. They are already dead. No matter how long he waits for them, they will never come back.”

“Why are you saying something like that?” Usopp demanded, suddenly indignant. “Who knows? Maybe they are coming back. It’s a beautiful thing to know that this whale is still keeping his promise.”

“But the truth is even crueler than the dream,” Crocus piped up suddenly. “They are already gone! I have checked already. They’ve left from the Grand Line.”

“What?” Usopp asked in shock. “What did you say?”

“So this whale was abandoned?” Nami asked, also shocked. “But if they were going to escape from the Grand Line without coming back here, they would have to get through the Calm Belt.”

“That’s right,” Crocus agreed. “So I don’t know if they are still alive or dead. Even if they are still alive, they will never come back. No one wants to stay in this catastrophic atmosphere. If you are not strong enough, you can’t survive in this sea. Because once you’ve experienced the fear of the Grand Line, you will become weak.”

“So…” I started, stubbing out my cigarette on the stone table I was sitting on. “This means that they weren’t strong enough and were afraid of death. So they decided to leave this place without thinking of the promise.”

“This whale has been abandoned even though he has believed in them for fifty years! This is too cruel!!” Usopp shouted in outrage. I found it a bit ironic, though. Usopp was the worst when it came to lies and (from what the others told me) made his village believe pirates were attacking every day when they weren’t and yet he was the most offended by this.

“Since you already know the truth, why don’t you tell him?” Nami asked suddenly. “This whale can understand human language right?”

“I’ve already told him everything, but Laboon… didn’t listen…” Crocus said, his voice breaking off a little as he seemed to remember something. “Since that day… Laboon always faces Reverse Mountain and cries. And he has hit his forehead to destroy the Red Line… as a sign that they will come back here. I’ve spoken with Laboon several times, but Laboon still won’t admit the truth.”

“What a whale!” I breathed, slightly amazed by the distinctly human amount of stubbornness Laboon was showing. “Even though he knows that he was betrayed, he’s still waiting.”

“Even though it’s worthless to wait,” Usopp added.

“Yes. Because he will have nothing left if he let down the promise. That’s why. Why he doesn’t want to listen to me. He’s afraid of losing the meaning of waiting,” Crocus said. “Laboon’s hometown is in West Blue. On the other side of the Red Line. That means he can’t go back there anymore. So, those people are his only hope and his everything.”

“Surely he’s unfortunate, but you were betrayed, too. Why do you still get involved with him?” I asked, trying to get a handle on everything about the situation. I knew far too many people who would have washed their hands of the whale a long time ago and yet Crocus was still here.

“Look at those scars on his forehead,” Crocus said. “If he continues hitting his head, he will die. I’ve been with him for fifty years. He’s become a part of my life. I can’t let him die.”

Suddenly, Luffy screamed, and I looked over to see him running up the side of Laboon with the broken off mast of the Merry. When had he broken that!? “What is he going to do?” I asked, a little worried at the display.

“Maybe he wants to hike on the whale…” Zoro suggested.

“We can’t let him out of our sight,” I muttered. Suddenly Luffy slammed the mast into Laboon’s forehead. Dead center. “Isn’t that a ship’s mast?” Zoro asked.

“From our ship?” I added even though I was fairly certain it was.

“Absolutely right!” Usopp agreed.

It took a second to register but then Laboon started going crazy. Understandable really. He had a **mast** in his **face**. He was thrashing and crying out and causing huge waves. “ **What the hell is that moron doing**?!!?!”

“He broke our ship’s mast!!” Usopp screeched. Luffy was screaming too, more because he was hanging on for dear life as Laboon thrashed.

Suddenly, Laboon stopped and started for the bit of land we were standing on. “He’s coming this way!”

“He’s going to hit the floor!”

Laboon hit the ground and there was a sickening splat. “That… that kid!!!” Crocus shouted.

He made a move to run over there, but Nami grabbed him. “It’s dangerous, mister! Don’t worry about him. He won’t die!”

Laboon raised his head again with another loud ‘BO!’ Luffy was of course fine and even called Laboon an idiot, which seemed to piss the huge whale off even more. Laboon slammed his head down again but this time, Luffy jumped out of the way before punching the whale dead in the eye. He then promptly got tossed into the lighthouse.

“What is he thinking?” Usopp asked.

“Luffy, What do you think you are doing?” Zoro asked a bit louder and more direct as Luffy came sliding to the bottom of the lighthouse.

“ **We are even now**!” Luffy shouted suddenly, making everyone including Laboon stop. What exactly was he talking about? “I am very good right?” he asked the whale with that crazy grin of his. “But we still don’t know the result of this fight. So, we have to fight again in the future. Your friends already died, but I am still alive. We will travel around the Grand Line. And we will come back to see you again.”

I looked up at Laboon and saw tears welling up in the eye we could see. “Let’s fight again next time!” Luffy shouted, still grinning. I couldn’t help but smile too. It was times like this I remembered precisely why I’d agreed to go with Luffy when I’d turned down countless other crews. He had a heart of gold.

“ **BO**!!”

Faster than I thought was possible; Luffy had gotten a huge amount of paint from… somewhere and painted a very large (and poor quality) Strawhat Jolly Roger on Laboon’s forehead. “O.K! This is the sign of promise between you and me!” he said though how he managed to keep a straight face while looking at that mutant skull was beyond me.

I shook my head and went back to the work I had was doing in the galley. With all the excitement I had to quickly butcher the elephant trunk tuna before it went bad. It’d been sitting out longer than I was entirely comfortable with. “You must not hit your head and make this sign disappear until we come back to see you again,” I heard Luffy tell Laboon. “Very good!!”

“I am going to plan out the route!” Nami called out since we’d all said we’d had things to do to get out of helping Luffy with his insane art project.

“I got an elephant trunk tuna for food!” I replied as I sliced through another piece carefully.

“That moron destroyed our ship!” I heard Usopp complain. “Hey, Zoro! Help me fix the ship!” All I heard in reply was a loud snore. “I am not a carpenter!”

Suddenly I heard Nami scream so loud that even Laboon went underwater. I almost sliced my finger off in surprise. I grabbed the sashimi and other foods I had made up for lunch and made my way up to where she and Luffy were. “What’s wrong with you?” I heard Luffy ask as I climbed up. “Why do you have to scream?”

“Seriously,” I added. “Screaming like that is going to ruin people’s appetites.” Though as soon as I said that I mentally corrected myself. I doubted anything could ruin this crew’s appetites.

“Why don’t I take a break and have some food…” I heard Usopp mutter as he climbed up behind me.

“The compass is broken! It never stops spinning!” Nami said pointing to the dizzyingly fast spinning compass.

“It seems that you don’t know anything about this place!” Crocus said in exasperation. “I am really tired of you. Do you want to waste your life here? I told you that you cannot use common sense in here. Your compass is not broken.”

“Eat. Eat,” Luffy said as he climbed into a seat, completely ignoring the situation and grabbing the head of the elephant trunk tuna.

“You are so fast about eating…” I commented, slightly amused and slightly appalled at the same time. It was strange. He was the only one who could manage to do that.

“Isn’t it a magnetic field?” Nami asked, getting back to the important topic.

“Yes. Because every island is the main source of many elements of the Grand Line. And it is creating a huge magnetic field that covers every single inch of this place,” Crocus informed. “Besides, the currents and the wind here are uncertain! If you are a true navigator, you should know about the danger of this place. If you go out there without any knowledge, you will only die.”

“You are right,” Nami agreed, though she didn’t sound all that happy. “If we don’t know the direction, we are hopeless. And I don’t know how to solve this problem…”

“Hey, this is bad! How can we survive now?” Usopp demanded.

“After all this you can’t even help us?!” I asked incredulously. Really? I mean, this sort of thing was supposed to be the whole reason we asked her to join us right?

“Can you shut up!?” she snapped.

Before I could reply that I wouldn’t ‘shut up’ Luffy interrupted me, “What is bad? This fish’s trunk is very delicious.”

“If you want to travel in the Grand Line, you must have a Log Pose,” Crocus said.

“Log Pose?” Nami echoed. “I’ve never heard of it before.”

“It’s a very special kind of compass,” Crocus informed.

“You mean a strange compass?” Luffy asked through the food in his mouth.

“Its shape is different from a regular compass,” Crocus added.

“Does it look like this?” Luffy asked holding something that looked kind of like a watch with a strange white and red diamond suspended within it out so we could see it.

“Yes,” Crocus stated. “Without a Log Pose, you can’t travel in the Grand Line. But it’s very difficult to find a Log Pose outside the Grand Line.”

“Ok, ok, but wait a minute here…” Nami said calmly. Suddenly, she launched her fist forward and caught Luffy in the jaw. “How did you get something like this!?!”

“Those mystery people left it on our ship,” Luffy said rubbing his head.

“Them?”

“Why did you punch me, then?” Luffy asked.

“I just teased you.” I sighed a bit. Luffy was just stupid enough to buy that sort of excuse…

“Teased me?” he echoed dumbly. Yep. He’d never know any different.

“This is a Log Pose, but there aren’t any letters on it…” Nami said examining the needle.

“Each island in the Grand Line has a unique magnetic field. We have to save this magnetic field that attracts one island to the other in the Log Pose. And then use it to guide us to the next destination. In the middle of nowhere, the magnetic field that we collect in the Log Pose is the only thing we can trust. First, we have to choose one of seven magnetic fields from this island. No matter where you begin you will end up in the single direction to the last island, and that island is ‘Raftel’, which is the final destination of the Grand Line. According to history, the only group that has arrived there was Gold Roger and his crew. It is a legendary island.”

“So… One Piece must be on that island!” Usopp said with a huge grin that rivaled Luffy’s.

“Well! That’s the greatest saga, and no one has ever accomplished it,” Crocus replied.

“That’s not a problem if we try!” Luffy said as he gnawed on elephant trunk tuna’s ribs. “Shall we go now? I am full!” he added leaning back in his chair.

I glanced down at the empty table. That was an entire elephant trunk tuna!! “You ate the whole thing?!”

“ **He even ate the fishbones**!!” Usopp screeched.

“ **Damn it! You ate all that food by yourself!? That’s horrible manners! You do that on the ocean and we’ll all die!!!** ” I shouted, my temper snapping so fast it almost shocked even myself. My leg snapped out before I could stop myself, catching Luffy in the back of the head and sending him flying.

I heard a shatter of glass and froze. Oh, crap. What did I accidentally break with Luffy’s hard rubber head? I looked over and saw Nami holding her wrist up with the now very broken Log Pose. Shit. Before I could even react Nami’s own foot connected with my side, sending bolts of pain through my back. “ **Why don’t the both of you just go and calm down in the sea**?!”

I was actually surprised she sent me flying as far as she did. She had a pretty mean kick when she was pissed. Not as bad as mine but still… it was more than I’d thought she’d have. Not that I’d tell her that, of course. I landed in the water with a splash, my back still screaming at me. I was still sore from when Pearl had crushed me. I was actually getting a bit worried about it. But the quickly sinking Luffy nearby took my attention back to the matter at hand.

I quickly swam down and grabbed Luffy by the back of his vest and then swam for the surface. He was incredibly heavy though and weighed me down. I finally managed to get him over to the shoreline and gasped as we broke the surface of the water. To my surprise, I heard three other gasps when I had only expected one and looked to my left.

“Eh?” Those weirdoes from inside the whale were there… looking rather crispy for some reason. I sighed a bit and pulled myself out of the water before extending my hand down to my captain. “Come on, Cutie-pie,” I said pulling him bodily out of the ocean.

“Hey!” Mr. Nine shouted as I started almost dragging the sopping wet Luffy back up the hill towards the main part of the island. I paused and turned to look at him. “I would like to ask for your help.”

I stared at him blandly before shrugging. “It’s really up to him,” I said pointing to the nearly dramatically dead looking Luffy. “If you want to talk, follow us,” I added continuing up the admittedly rather steep hill. Lucky I had strong legs, cause Luffy was actually pretty damn heavy when he was just laying there like a sack.

When we finally got up to where Nami and Usopp where I flopped back down on a seat and pulled out my cigarettes, thankfully the replacement case I had gotten in Logue Town kept them dry, and I was able to light one without a problem from my recent soaking. “Whisky Peak? What is it?” Nami asked after listening to the two weirdos.

“It’s the name of our town.”

“You don’t have a ship, so you want us to take you there? Don’t you think it’s too easy, Mr. Nine? You were thinking about killing that whale weren’t you?” Nami asked clearly she was looking for some sort of advantage here, and I wasn’t about to stop her this time. Mr. Nine wasn’t all that handsome. Those Nines ruined what might have been there. Why did people get face tattoos anyway? They were so distracting.

“Tell us, who are you?” Usopp asked.

“I am the King,” Nine said. I snorted. That was about as believable as Usopp being a Captain. “Ouch!” he shouted as Nami pinched his tattooed cheek.

“Don’t lie!” she snapped.

“We can’t tell you about that. But we really want to go back to our town. We will repay you if you help us!” they said bowing low. Mm, and that was that. They’d said the magic word. ‘Pay’ even if it had been only part of the word. Nami would be all over that. “Actually, we don’t want to do this job, but our company has to keep our secret as our lives. We can’t say anything. Everything is up to your kindness now.”

“Stop pretending! No matter what they said, they must not be good people,” Crocus argued.

“But I broke your Log Pose. So, do you still want to go with us?” Nami asked holding up the broken Log Pose.

“ **What? You broke it?! But that was mine!** ” Nine shouted.

“ **This is too much now! But you can’t go anywhere either!** ” Wednesday added just as loudly.

“Oh! I forgot!” Nami said with a bit of a laugh. “Crocus-san gave me a new one.”

The pair instantly hit the dirt in another bow. “Please, our lives depend on your benevolence.”

“You can come with us,” Luffy stated suddenly.

I chuckled a little. Yeah, I wasn’t surprised. If it wasn’t Nami trying to get paid, it was Luffy just being too nice for his own good. This was really a strange crew I’d ended up with. We quickly got ready to set sail, having no further business on this island now that we had a Log Pose and a destination in mind.

“It’s about to work now. I think the compass is supposed to work,” Nami said glancing between the map and the Log Pose.

“Is it pointing towards the right direction?” Crocus asked.

“Yes. It is pointing toward Whiskey Peak,” she confirmed.

“Are you sure you want to choose Whiskey Peak just for these people, kids?” Crocus asked. “Only you can choose your destination from here.”

“If we don’t like it we can come back,” Luffy stated simply, and I couldn’t help but smile at that straight forward thinking of his. “We are going now, Mr. Flower!”

“Thank you for the Log Pose,” Nami said, hanging half over the railing.

“See you again.”

As we set sail, Luffy jumped up onto the railing to look back at Laboon. “ **I am going now, whale! And I’ll be back!!** ”


	25. Welcome Town

It seemed like we hadn’t been sailing long at all when suddenly it began to snow. I eyed the falling white powder critically for a moment before closing the window of the galley. I really didn’t like snow all that much. It got everything wet when it melted, and I never had been a big fan of being cold. It didn’t take long for the snow to start piling up on deck, though and (since nobody else seemed to think this was a problem), I begrudgingly found a shovel to start clearing the deck.

Luffy and Usopp were too busy apparently making snowmen to help any. The idiots didn’t seem to realize that snow got heavy extraordinarily fast and unexpected weight was _dangerous_ for ships. It didn’t take long for the two of them to star fighting though and I just glared in their general direction. They did seem to be enjoying themselves, though, and they were still kids. So, I turned my annoyance at someone else. “Nami! What the hell? Would you get off your ass and help me over here?”

“Shut up! Someone has to watch where we’re going!” Nami shouted through the window of the galley.

I growled some but resisted the urge to throw a hunk of snow at her. A lightning strike lit up the sky, making me pause. That was a bit odd. Lightning didn’t usually accompany snow. Suddenly, Nami screamed, making me flinch some and whip around. “What the hell happened?”

“This must be a joke! We need to turn back a hundred and eighty degrees!” Nami said hurrying out onto the deck looking beside herself with utter panic.

“A hundred and eighty degrees? Why do we have to turn back?” Usopp asked.

“You forgot something?” Luffy guessed as he continued to mold himself a snowball.

“No. But I don’t realize when our ship started heading towards the wrong direction. I just didn’t look at the Log Pose for a while, and the waves are calm!” Nami explained looking at the Log Pose on her wrist frantically. I thought I heard talking from in the galley and suddenly Nami kicked the two idiots we were transporting outside. “Stop bragging and help the others!”

“Turn back a hundred and eighty degrees and wait for the wind from the right! Usopp, can you go and take a look at the back? Sonya, you control the rudder!” Nami snapped.

“Right, right, keep your tiny skirt on,” I said as I heard Mr. Nine call Nami a witch. I had to agree with him there.

“Wait, the wind is changing its direction!” Usopp suddenly informed.

“You must be kidding!” Nami said turning to look at him.

Just then a nice warm breeze blew across the ship. “Spring is the best!” Mr. Nine and Ms. Wednesday said with a sigh.

“Zoro! Wake up! We are in an emergency situation now!” Usopp shouted, waking Zoro up from where he was napping against the side of the ship’s railing briefly. Very briefly.

“I see a dolphin over there. Should we take a look at it?” Luffy asked, looking excited.

“Can you just shut up?” Nami demanded instead.

“The waves are getting stronger!” Usopp shouted.

“Nami, fog! And an iceberg at seven o’clock!” I told her just incase she hadn’t seen them. The last thing I wanted was to be shipwrecked five minutes after entering the Grand Line.

“What’s wrong with this sea?” Nami demanded, clearly beyond flustered at this point.

Suddenly, the whole ship rocked violently, and I almost lost my footing. I looked over and cursed some. “We hit an iceberg!”

“The ship is leaking!” Luffy informed, finally seeming to realize this was a rather serious situation. Usopp instantly hurried to try and patch the hole before we all sunk to the bottom of the sea.

“The clouds are changing speed,” Nami said. “The sail is down. The wind is getting too strong!”

“Eat so you’ll have energy!” I heard Usopp said. To which Luffy, of course, agreed.

“What?!” I whipped around to see them stuffing their faces. “You’re eating too much!” How even had that entered their head in this situation?

“Hurry up and open the sail!” Nami ordered.

“The ship is leaking again!”

“Damn it!”

“Nami, how about the compass?”

“The route is changing again!”

“ **What!?** ”

Finally, it all seemed to stop, and the sea was calm and beautiful. I just about collapsed onto the deck in exhaustion. That was the worst sailing experience I think I’d ever had. And I’d grown up on the sea practically. The Baratie had sailed through plenty of rough storms. I heard Zoro stretch and get up. “Ha! That’s a good sleep! Eh? Hey! Even though it’s good weather, it’s not good to have everyone sleeping!” Zoro said. “I hope that you’re not lost.”

I groaned. He’d slept through the whole thing!? How was that possible? The ship hit an iceberg for crying out loud! “What are you doing here?” Zoro asked apparently just noticing Mr. Nine and Ms. Wednesday.

“We’re heading to their town,” Luffy supplied happily, apparently not too worn out from the terror of what had just happened.

“Don’t tell me that you’re gonna take them there. We don’t have any reason to do that,” Zoro said. Wait. Hadn’t he been there as we were discussing this earlier? Had he been asleep this whole time!? **_How!?_**

“That’s right. We have no reason,” Luffy agreed.

“Ho! You must be thinking some pretty bad things now,” Zoro said kneeling down in front of the pair of weirdos. “What are your names?”

“Mr. Nine.”

“I’m Ms. Wednesday.”

I frowned. Hadn’t we already gone over all of this? I sighed and pulled out my cigarette case. I so needed the nicotine right now. I quickly lit the thing as I got up fully and leaned against the railing of the ship. “You know, when I first heard your names they sort of reminded me of something. It seems that I’ve heard of them somewhere, haven’t I?” Zoro mused, looking at the pair thoughtfully.

“Never mind about that!” Nami snapped before punching Zoro in the head hard.

“Hey! Easy with the violence, Roe-brains!” I said though I knew she was, for once, justifiably annoyed with the handsome swordsman.

“You were having too good a sleep. We’ve been trying to wake you up for a long time,” Nami growled at Zoro, completely ignoring me, I might add. She bashed him over the head so hard that I was feeling it before turning away.

I hurried over and knelt down beside Zoro, wincing at the three large lumps coming out of his head. “Poor Baby,” I murmured. “You really should have woken up to help us, though,” I said rubbing his shoulder in an attempt to be comforting.

“Everyone, you mustn’t be too sure about anything,” Nami said to the others as she ignored us. “Because we have no idea of knowing what is going to happen next. Now I know why they called this place ‘The Grand Line’. And, I also learned a scary thing about this sea. My navigation technique can’t be used here.”

“Can we survive?” Usopp asked worriedly.

“Sure! We must have survived. The first evidence is over there. Look!” she said pointing into the distance. “We have completed our first journey.”

“An island!” Luffy said excitedly. “With giant cacti!”

My eyes widened some, but it was true. Instead of mountains, the island was covered in huge cacti each with several bulbous arms. The rest of the island was almost plateau like with how flat it was. “This is Whiskey Peak.”

“That’s great! We’ve safely arrived!” Luffy said from on top of Merry’s head. I smiled some; it was about time. Hopefully, all the trips from island to island wouldn’t be that painfully jam-packed with problems. Plus, it hadn’t been too long of a trip all things considered. Half a day at most.

Suddenly, Mr. Nine and Ms. Wednesday jumped up onto the railing. “We have to go now. Thank you for taking us here,” Nine said.

“We shall meet again if we are destined to,” Wednesday added. “Bye, bye, baby!” They both cooed before jumping backward into the water with unnecessary drama.

“They’re gone. Who are they?” Usopp asked with a bit of exasperation.

“Don’t worry about that.”

“Let’s go to port!” Luffy shouted.

“There’s a river, so we can get to port through there,” Nami said pointing to said river where it cut through the rocks.

“Are there any ghosts or monsters here?” Usopp asked in sudden fright.

“It’s possible because this is the Grand Line,” I told him as I exhaled another stream of smoke. I didn’t know how he and Luffy could manage to find energy again so quickly. I was about ready for a nice relaxing cup of tea or something. Maybe something a bit stronger…

“We can go to another island then,” Luffy assured him with a huge grin.

“Wait a minute. Don’t forget that we have to spend some time on this island,” Nami reminded, confusing Luffy as usual. “If my Log Pose can’t memorize this island’s magnetic field, then we can’t go to another island. And the time that will take Log Pose to record the data is different on each island. Some islands take a few hours and some take up to two or three days.”

“You mean that even though this is a monster island or we want to get out of here as soon as we can, we have to stay here?” Usopp demanded.

“That’s right,” Nami answered calmly.

“Let’s not worry about that. Let’s go!” Luffy said, grinning that impossibly large grin again. “We must be crazy if we don’t go in there!”

“Maybe for you,” Nami said with her hands on her hips.

“As Luffy said, let’s go and don’t worry about that,” Zoro said.

I grinned. “Don’t worry, Zoro! You’re so strong I bet nothing on this island can hurt you!” He just looked at me for a minute before quickly looking away. Though, I could have sworn I saw a blush. My grin widened, and I grabbed his arm. He was finally warming up to me! I could die right now and be perfectly happy. Well, I mean… mostly. It’d be better if I got a kiss out of it.

“Hey, everyone! Listen to me. I don’t want to go there!” Usopp said, almost sweating with how nervous he was.

“Let’s go then!” Luffy said, making Usopp whimper some. “Listen up! Everyone must be prepared to run and fight!”

“Run _and_ fight?” I echoed. How on earth did he expect us to do both?

A thick fog rolled in from seemingly nowhere, and our eyesight plummeted to nearly zero. But we could still hear something through the mist. “Human noises? It’s so foggy. I can’t see anything.”

“Human?” Usopp echoed, still clearly frightened. “There are humans here?”

Eventually, we broke through the fog and saw what looked like the whole town out by the shore. “Welcome! To our town: Whiskey Peak! Pirates! Welcome to the Grand Line! Welcome to our town!”

I was instantly confused. People didn’t welcome pirates… ever. “I thought that there would be monsters, but instead, it’s a warm welcome?” Usopp questioned.

“What’s going on here?” I asked warily as I looked at the many people lined up on the shore. This was definitely not what I had expected, and I wasn’t at all comfortable. I didn’t really like unexpected reactions like this. Was the Grand Line really that much different than the other Blues that they _liked_ pirates here?

“Congratulations on your brave journey, warriors!” The town cheered.

As we sailed past, I noticed a group of, particularly good-looking, guys. “Oh my god! Look at all the hunks here!” I said, instantly liking this place better. I mean, come on! The whole town couldn’t possibly be out to get us or anything! Plus those guys were welcoming us! That was a good thing! Oh! And they were so buff! Washboard abs and chiseled jaws and it was all so wonderful!

“I’m so happy! It seems that pirates are the heroes of this town,” Usopp said as he blew kisses to the crowd.

“Wow!!”

We docked with absolutely no problem, which was very nice. I couldn’t imagine there were many places that accepted pirates in port so easily. A man with huge curled hair and a saxophone stepped up once we got off the Merry. “Welcome. My name is Igaram. This is Whiskey Peak, the town of music and liquor! It’s our honor to welcome you. We have a lot of liquor here. Please, tell us about your journey,” he said. “If you don’t mind, I would like to ask you to join a party.”

“Sure!” Me, Luffy and Usopp agreed. I did love parties. Especially if those cute guys from before were going to be there! Plus, who didn’t like music and liquor? Unfun people that was who.

We were all quickly ushered into a nearby bar where almost immediately the booze and food started flowing. The food was acceptable, and the liquor was pretty strong, but the guys from before came, so I didn’t mind that the food wasn’t up to my usual gourmet standards. This was just a small town anyway. It was unreasonable to think every island would have really amazing chefs.

Usopp was lying his butt off to impress the town’s people, and both Zoro and Nami were in drinking contests. Luffy was wearing out a different chef for once, which gave me time to enjoy having all those hunky men treating me like the angel I was. Every time I needed more wine one of them would instantly fill my glass and they were letting me lay out across their legs without a second thought, even rubbing my shoulders and calves for me.

I could seriously think of not leaving this place. I was loving being pampered for once. These guys knew how to treat a lady. The party lasted well into the night and the men never once left my side, continuing to pamper me. I sighed some as I leaned back against one particularly strong chest. “This is heaven…” And before I knew it, I was sound asleep, completely content for the first time in a while.


	26. Sonya's Dream

My eyes wandered over the landscape as my mother led me through the woods. I didn’t know where she was taking me, but I knew it had to be important. She said it was a secret and she was going to show me what it was now that she knew I would keep it. She trusted me. “It’s just up ahead, dear,” mother said pointing in front of us. I looked away from the woods to where the trail was leading.

My eyes widened in amazement. “Wooow, that’s a huge cave, Momma!” I said staring at the huge pitch black hole in the side of the mountain. All around it, there were little carvings that looked like waves and fish and even seaweed.

My mother laughed some. “It is,” she agreed, stopping by the entrance of the cave and lighting a lantern. “And my secret is inside. Are you brave enough to come in there with me?”

I scowled some at that. “I’m not a baby afraid of the dark!” I told her. I didn’t even need candles burning in my room to go to sleep anymore!

She laughed again. “Alright, alright, calm down. Let’s go inside. Hold my hand, so you don’t get lost,” she said holding her hand out. I took it instantly, and she started to lead me inside the cave.

It didn’t take long for the air to get a cold and damp feeling and I actually shivered some from the change in temperature. All around I could see strange shadows that looked like monsters with huge pointy teeth. Off in the distance, I could hear dripping noises, and I could smell water, but I couldn’t see it. I could barely see anything.

Momma wasn’t looking at me, but straight ahead and I found myself inching closer to her despite myself. This place was scarier than I thought it’d be. Everything was orangey colored, and every once and a while a sparkle caught my eye from the shadows that made me turn and look. I swear my head was about to fall off from how many times I’d whipped it around from something catching my attention off to the side.

The dripping was growing louder, but I still couldn’t see where it was coming from no matter how hard I strained my eyes. “It’s really cold,” I said as the air shifted and made me shiver again.

“I know, that’s because of how deep underground we are,” mother told me as she continued to guide me through different chambers. Sometimes we had to squeeze through really tight areas to get past, but Momma just kept going.

“Why are we going so far down?” I asked with a slight whine. “Why can’t you move your secret closer to home?”

Mother looked down at me with a slight frown. “I can’t move it, darling.”

“Why not?” I asked, truly whining this time.

“Because I can’t, and you’ll see why when we get there,” she replied in that tone I knew to mean I should stop pestering her about it.

It felt like we had been walking forever and the dripping was really really loud now. “Here we are,” Momma said letting my hand go to move to the side. I stood perfectly still, not wanting to get lost or fall down a hole or anything like that. Momma had told me lots of times that happened to people who wandered into caves. It was why she told me never to go into the caves alone.

Suddenly, there was light everywhere, and I gasped at the room I was in. It was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. “Wowie…” I breathed as I stared up at the crystals that were shimmering with light, just like it looked when the sun was bouncing off water. I finally realized where the drip was coming from when I spotted the large pool of water in the middle of the room that was catching a constant drip from a large pointy rock hanging out of the ceiling.

All around the room, there were carvings of huge fish with jewels for scales and pearls for bubbles. I wandered over to the nearest carving and reached out to touch it. It was a fish bigger than me with rainbow colored scales and pretty wispy looking fins carved into the rock. “That’s a Rainbow Angel Fish. You find them in the South Blue,” Mother told me.

“It’s so pretty…” I said before slowly making my way around the room. Everywhere I looked there was another fish absolutely nothing like the one before it. It was like being in a giant fish tank. Only better because it was all huge. I stopped again by a blue and silver fish that was bigger than even Momma was and had a weird nose thing on its face.

“An Elephant Trunk Tuna,” Momma supplied for me.

I smiled wide. The name fit. “It’s so funny looking. Like Mr. Leon’s fish son or something!”

“Don’t make fun of Mr. Leon,” Momma said, but she was smiling some too so I knew she wasn’t all that mad about it. As I continued to wander the room, Momma took one slow look around before turning to me. “One of our ancestors made this place. He was a pirate who used all the jewels he plundered to make his carvings as real as possible.”

“Why?” I asked brushing my fingers across a large ruby set in one fish’s eye.

“Because he wanted his children to see what he saw when he finally found it,” Mother answered softly.

I turned some. “Found what?”

Mother smiled and looked around again. “All Blue.”

I blinked. What on earth was she going on about now? Sometimes my mother just made absolutely no sense whatsoever. “What’s All Blue, Momma?”

She smiled widely. “It’s a magical sea where every fish from every other sea can be found. It’s underwater paradise!” she said waving her arms at the carvings inside the cave. “It’s the sea of life!”

“And it looks like this?” I asked in amazement as I looked around.

“That’s right! Every fish you could ever imagine is there just waiting to be discovered. Nobody’s been able to find All Blue for ages; so most people don’t think it exists. But our family knows better,” she said, her voice dropping down to a whisper at the end. “We have this wonderful treasure that nobody else could ever appreciate that tells us it exists. And one day when All Blue is found again we won’t be surprised at all. Because we have this here made by the man who first found it!”

I turned to look at the cave again; a whole new kind of awe overtook me. It was amazing that we could see something that everybody thought was a myth. Even though it wasn’t the real ocean and just a carving, it was enough to make me crave seeing the real thing. “You believe it’s real, don’t you?” My mother asked, brushing my hair back.

I nodded instantly. With this proof right here in front of me, and hearing my mother’s story there was just no doubt in my mind. All Blue was real, and it was the most beautiful thing ever. “I’m gonna find it,” I said suddenly. I looked up at my mother to see her looking back down at me with eyes almost the exact same shade of blue as mine.

“You’re going to find it?” My mother echoed.

I nodded again. “I’m gonna see it myself! Even if I have ta sail all the oceans fifty hundred times!” I declared. I wasn’t going to let anything stop me from seeing this for real. It was the most amazing thing ever, and I was gonna find it!

Mother smiled and bent down to kiss my cheek. “I know you will. I believe you.” She suddenly stood up again. “It’s gonna be hard, though,” she warned.

“I don’t care!” I stated instantly.

She chuckled and tilted her head to the side. “Come along, My Darling, we’ve got dinner to cook still,” she said going to grab the lantern from where it was sitting in front of a bunch of mirrors. So, that was where all the light had suddenly come from…

“Can I help you cook dinner, Momma?” I asked as I took her outstretched hand again.

She laughed and nodded. “Of course, Baby. You know I love it when you help me cook. You’ll be as good a cook as me one day…”

“I’mma never be as good a cook as you, Momma,” I said.

She gave me a quick kiss. “If you keep getting so good you will,” she replied. “You’re gonna be the best cook in the world one day if you keep it up. A beautiful little cook that finds All Blue.” 

I beamed at that and hugged her tight. “I promise I will!”

“Good girl.”

* * *

“Momma! Momma, look!” I said holding up a bundle of flowers. “Me’n the Princess found all these flowers out by the wall!”

My mother glanced over and smiled some. “They’re very pretty, dear. Now, you two should play inside for now. Dinner’s almost ready,” she said chopping up piece after piece of dried herb bread for croutons.

I nodded and reached over to grab the Princess’s hand and drag her inside with me. We dodged around cooks, workers, and maids as we darted through the kitchen. The head housekeeper told us to slow down as we ran through the large hallways and then up the grand stairs to go to my best friend’s room. Well, only friend. But still best.

The Princess grabbed my arm and pulled me over to the vanity on the opposite side of her room. “Come on! Let’s play a trick on the adults!”

“Alright!” I already knew what kind of trick she was talking about after all. We hadn’t played it in so long the adults wouldn’t be expecting it. I hurried into the closet to find two dresses that looked a lot alike. When I got back out, she handed me a brush.

We quickly both brushed our hair down over our left eyes. Without being able to see our left eyes, nobody would be able to tell us apart. The Princess was the only other person I’d ever met whose eyebrow did what mine did. Momma said it was a rare North Blue trait, whatever that meant. I thought it might mean something about us being related or something but Momma had said that wasn’t true at all. The Princess was the Princess after all. She was the daughter of the King, and I wasn’t. She’d had a strange look when she’d said that, but I knew she was telling me the truth. 

Once we’d finished making ourselves look as much alike as possible, we went downstairs to the dining room where dinner was already being put on the table. Well, the first course was. The King looked up when we came in and sighed heavily, rubbing the bridge of his nose some. “Oh, not again…” I heard him mutter.

Me and my best friend exchanged a giggle as he got up and made his way towards us. “Uh oh!” the Princess whispered before taking my hand and dragging me to the other side of the table before the King could reach us.

“Young Ladies, that’s quite enough games for one day,” the King said as he tried to catch us as we rounded the other side of the table again. Making sure to keep away from him as long as possible. He gave another exasperated sigh, but we knew better than to take it seriously. If he were really annoyed, he’d just order us to stop. “Come back here,” he said lunging and missing terribly. “Sarah! Sarah, get your daughter!” he shouted from his new spot on the floor.

“Oh no!” I squealed and ran out of the dining room just as Mother came in to see what all the fuss was about.

“Sonya! Rosette! Come back here! We need to have dinner!” Mother called as we continued to run down the hall. Suddenly, something caught my eye, and I came to a stop next to a window.

The Princess noticed and turned back to face me. “What is it?” she asked with a frown. “Don’t you want to play anymore?”

I didn’t answer and walked closer to the window. “What’re those?” I asked pointing to the big wooden things that were coming closer to the castle. Suddenly, bells rang out, and I jumped in shock. Those were the warning bells! Those were only supposed to ring if there was danger! “Oh no! Come on!” I said grabbing my friend’s hand and dragging her back the way we’d come. Our parents would know what to do. They always knew what to do.

Before we could reach the dinning room, my mother found us, and without a word dragged us down another hall. “Where are we going, Ms. Sarah?” the Princess asked as we struggled to keep up.

 “Somewhere safe!” mother replied sharply. I heard shouting and screaming, and my eyes widened as I started to get scared. What was going on? And what were those things outside!?


	27. The Mission

Suddenly, I felt a hard grip on my leg and woke up from my dreams. “Huh?” A split second later, I was being dragged by said leg with complete disregard for the fact that we were inside. My body slammed through the wall painfully as my body skidded across the ground. “ **W-what!? What’s going on? The hell are you doing, Luffy!? Hey!** ”

My body, especially my back, screamed in protest as I was dragged by one leg, skidding so much that my jacket was ripped off and left behind. “ **Let go of me! What’s the big idea!?** ”

“ **You’re breaking my nose!** ” Usopp shouted beside me as he too was dragged very quickly through the streets of the town.

Luffy, of course, ignored us and I couldn’t manage to get my other foot under me to get up with how fast he was running. My head slammed into a rock in the road, and I cried out as stars crossed my vision. Luffy either didn’t notice or didn’t care and just kept on hauling ass with me and Usopp dragging behind.

The road suddenly changed to wood, and I felt my leg drop. I groaned some and tried to focus. After several minutes, I sat up and rubbed my head where a nice sized knot was forming. Great. Just what I needed. A damn concussion. Goddamn, Luffy. What the hell was his problem anyway? Slowly, I realized I was back on the boat. Not only that but we weren’t in dock anymore. And it was still dark out. We hadn’t even spent a full night in port!

“What’s going on!? Why did we have to set sail so soon? Can’t we stay at least one more night? Their party was a blast, and they have so many hot guys!” I protested whipping around to face the rest of the crew where they were standing on the deck.

“That’s right you have no idea if we’ll ever come across a town as nice as that one! So, let’s take things nice and easy! We are pirates, you know!! I mean the sun hasn’t even risen yet! Come on, let’s go back!” Usopp agreed from his seat beside me. It seemed he had woke up about the same time I had and come to the same conclusion. At least someone was on my side.

“I think you oughta go explain to them what happened…” Zoro muttered to Nami.

“Consider it done,” Nami said before coming over to us. I regarded her warily as she knelt down between us. I didn’t trust that smile on her face in the least. Suddenly her fist slammed into the exact place that my skull had collided with the rock, and I fell back in agony. **That was her explanation!? Head Trauma!?** ‘ _I hate you… stupid orange peel…_ ’ I thought as my head throbbed painfully and I struggled to not pass out again.

A few minutes later, I became aware of talking. Well, more like shouting and angry words being flung around. I sat up and gave Usopp a bit of a nudge to wake him up. It sounded like it was coming from the other side of the Galley. Usopp blinked up at me with a slightly dazed look. “Wha?”

“Shh, I think something’s up,” I said gesturing for him to go around one side while I went around the other. I spotted a pistol sticking out of one of the nearby chests that we had stored on deck and quickly grabbed it. I wasn’t usually much for guns or weapons at all, even though I knew the basics of how to use most, but my back was screaming from being dragged, and my leg felt like it might be dislocated or something from Luffy’s stupidity. So, I’d rather play it safe; besides, it still wouldn’t hurt my hands any.

I rounded the corner just as Usopp did and we both pointed our weapons at the unfamiliar woman sitting on the railing. She was wearing a cowboy hat and ankle boots with a short skirt and a sleeveless vest. I instantly didn’t like her.

“Hey…” Usopp asked from the other side of the woman. “Do you understand what’s going on?”

“No,” I replied without lowering the pistol. “But what I do know for sure is that this cowgirl wannabe isn’t our friend and trespassing on our boat.”

The woman closed her eyes, looking somewhat exasperated. “Would you please mind not pointing such dangerous weapons at me?” she asked as I suddenly felt myself get pulled to the side and flung over the railing.

“Wha!?” I hit the deck hard on my shoulder and upper back. Damn, I was getting thrown around a lot lately. It was very annoying. And painful. Really, very painful. I groaned some as I pushed myself up into a sitting position and heard ‘Devil Fruit’ and nearly groaned again. Of course, she had a Devil Fruit. Why the hell wouldn’t she!?

“What ability does she have?” Nami asked as I looked back up at her.

From this angle, I saw even more of her and couldn’t help but scoff some. “I think you forgot to put on some actual clothes this morning,” I muttered at the sight of the generous amount of cleavage and the strip of skin right down the middle that she was exposing.

She chuckled some. “No need to get so riled up. I haven’t come here on any orders nor do I have any reasons for fighting you people,” she said, and I couldn’t help but think that she was a bit pompous and full of herself. Suddenly, Luffy’s hat flung up to her where she caught it easily. “So, you’re the Captain of the Strawhat Pirates, Monkey D. Luffy.”

Of course, Luffy instantly lost it. “ **Gimme back my hat! So, you _are_ trying to pick a fight with us, are ya now!? I’ve decided to see you as my enemy so come at me!** ”

Cowgirl didn’t seem upset though and actually put Luffy’s hat on top of her own. “How unfortunate… small-time pirates having to look after a princess targeted by the entire Baroque Works organization… and a lone princess having to entrust herself to a few small-time pirates… but above all, how unfortunate your route pointed out by your Log Pose is! The name of the next place on your journey is ‘Little Garden’. Even if I weren’t to lay a single finger on you, it’s more than likely that you’d still never reach Alabasta. Without even meeting Crocodile, the curtains will close on your mission and lives.”

Woo, Ominous.

“ **As if we’d just roll over and die! Now gimme back my hat!** ” Luffy shouted.

“Yeah, how dare you! Y-you big meanie!” Usopp shouted from his hiding spot behind the mast. As soon as he heard ‘Devil Fruit’, he’d bolted behind there and had yet to come out.

“How old are you?” Zoro asked him in exasperation.

“Enough howling, anyone could put up a brave front,” cowgirl-whoever-she-was said before flinging Luffy’s hat back where it landed neatly on his head. “Yet to know of the difficulty that lies ahead and still rush in is an act fit for only fools,” she added as she tossed something to Ms. Wednesday, who for some odd reason was with us. I’d yet to fully understand everything that was going on, but I figured she must be the ‘princess’ that cowgirl mentioned before. I mean, I was like ninety-eight percent sure it had to be her.

“An Eternal Pose!?” she exclaimed as she held up the vaguely compass-like thing she’d been tossed.

“You’ll be able to skip right over your future troubles with that. The needle of that Log Pose points to an obscure uninhabited island located right before Alabasta. Moreover, the route you’ll be navigating on is unknown to Baroque Works, so you won’t be followed by anyone either.”

“What? Is she not a bad person then?” Nami asked, almost sounding as confused as I felt.

“W-why would you give such a thing to me?” Ms. Wednesday asked loudly.

“…It’s probably a trap,” Zoro commented, and I couldn’t help but agree and not just because he was so amazingly stunning to look at either.

“Oh, I wonder about that…” cowgirl said not seemingly upset by the accusation. She actually sounded like she was enjoying this. I felt a shiver of unpleasantness go down my spine. I hated that sort of manipulative friendly shit.

Ms. Wednesday stared down at the Pose in her hands for a long minute when suddenly, Luffy grabbed it. “Enough wasting time with that!” he said before crushing it in his fist. 

“Be still my heart…” I murmured with a smile.

However, it seemed Nami didn’t share my enjoyment of the sight. “Are you an idiot!?” she screeched before kicking Luffy so hard his face warped for a moment. “She came all the way out here to teach us the safest route to Alabasta! What are you going to do if she does turn out to be a good person!?” she demanded pointing at cowgirl.

Luffy looked up at the woman, and his face turned almost scarily serious. “Don’t you dare think that you can choose the path of our journey!” he snapped at her. 

“I see,” cowgirl said after a long moment. “How unfortunate…”

“Luffy!” Nami scolded loudly.

“She blew up that Chikuwa Mister, so I hate her!” Luffy replied through grit teeth.

“Well, I don’t dislike bold men…” she said getting off the railing finally.

“Hey hey hey! Find your own brain-dead captain!” I snapped in annoyance. Who did she think she was trying to snag other’s cuties?

“… let us meet again soon. If you survive,” she added completely ignoring me and making my temper flare at the same time. The nerve of her!

“I don’t wanna!” Luffy replied instantly.

Cowgirl just ignored Luffy’s reply and jumped off onto a giant turtle smoking a cigarette and wearing a sun hat. “Let’s go, Bunch,” she said sitting down on a large chair on the turtle’s back. 

“Whoa, it’s a turtle!”

“What a huge turtle…” Luffy mused as he watched it quickly swim away.

Suddenly, Ms. Wednesday collapse to the ground. “That woman! I don’t have the faintest idea what she’s really planning!” 

“Then, it’s a waste of time and effort to think about it,” Nami told her with that confidence that I half-admired and half-hated with a fiery passion. 

“We’ve got an incomprehensible person like her onboard too, you know,” Zoro offered from where he was leaning against the main mast.

“Hey! Explain the situation to us!” Usopp demanded.

“Yeah, seriously… instead of giving us concussions this time maybe you could actually fill us in,” I drawled giving Nami a glare. “Is Ms. Wednesday joining our crew?” I asked not really liking that idea at all. Didn’t we have enough women on board? I mean, really, I would be enough.

“I said: explain what’s going on already!” Usopp demanded.

Suddenly, a beak and feathers caught my eye. “Whoa! We have an ostrich on our ship!” The bird gave me an annoyed look and quacked. “Oh… sorry, giant duck…” I corrected softly. I’d just never seen a huge duck before. I bet I could make some seriously delicious recipes out of that thing…

“Are you really alright with me riding on your ship?” Ms. Wednesday asked softly. “I may be just putting all of you in danger…”

“Oh please!” Nami said with a heavy sigh. “It’s already your fault that they found out about us and what we look like! If you didn’t want to trouble us, then, you shouldn’t have done so to begin with!” Nami scolded as she poked the blue haired woman’s forehead repeatedly. 

“I… I’m sorry.”

“Right, Luffy?” Nami asked turning to our captain.

“It’s morning! **Sonya! Time for breakfast!** ” he shouted, and I sighed heavily. Why was an explanation so damn hard to get? 

“Now then… since the sun is up,” Nami said turning to the rest of us. “Let’s set sail!”

“Hello? Anybody listening? Could reeeaaally use an explanation over here!” Usopp called out and was promptly ignored. 

“So… Ms. Wednesday, exactly _where_ are you going to be bunking?” I asked with my arms crossed. It was a pain enough to share with just Nami, I couldn’t imagine sharing with Nami and Ms. Wednesday-too-many-circles. To my somewhat twisted delight, she took a step back and looked a bit scared to answer. At least I wouldn’t have to constantly fight with her to keep her in line. That was a nice change of pace.

“I-I’m not sure…” she finally said.

“Nami, please, I beg of you… tell me what’s going on!” Usopp wailed. 

Nami gave a noise of pure annoyance and threw her hands up. “Augh! Fine!” She then launched into a very quick explanation of what had happened. Starting from Zoro taking on the entire village, which was apparently made up of only bounty hunters. To Zoro and Luffy duking it out on the streets. To Ms. Wednesday being a princess of some kingdom that was in trouble from some group of people called Baroque Works that was run by one of the Shichibukai. To finally how we’d somehow ended up agreeing to transport Ms. Wednesday (or rather Vivi) to Alabasta.

“…I see. Well, that sucks. But I’ve never heard of Alabasta before… I could learn a whole new cuisine,” I realized after a moment of thinking about it. “I guess that sorta makes up for having to tote girls around like a damn pleasure cruise.”

“Wow……” Usopp said, eyes wide and jaw on the ground. “I’m glad I slept through all that!”

“We’re not going to have to bunk with her are we, Roe-head?”

“Of course we are and stop calling me that,” she said though I noticed my nickname didn’t get as much anger as it had originally. That was disappointing. I’d have to try harder.

“Well, you can count on me to back you up!” Usopp said to Vivi, and pulling out Luffy’s wanted poster. “The whole world’s talking about whether or not the thirty million bounty isn’t actually for my head instead!”

“I wonder if it’s gonna snow…” Luffy mused.

“Why the hell would it snow?” Zoro asked looking up at our captain. 

“You just don’t know because you were sleeping when it was snowing the other day,” Luffy replied. He turned around to the rest of us then. “Hey! Do ya think it’ll snow some more?”

I just rolled my eyes at the question and went into the galley. It was getting rather close to breakfast, after all. So, I should probably make something. And if I didn’t give Luffy something to tide himself over he could start eating his own foot or something. I paused and gave a shudder at my own thought. Why did that have to be the first thing to come to my mind!? Why do you torment me brain?

I shook my head and continued with the drinks I was making. It would keep them busy until I could whip up something more substantial. It only took me a few minutes to finish the drinks and came back out with them perfectly balanced on a tray. “Anybody up for some special drinks?” I called.

“You bet we are!” Luffy, Zoro, and Usopp called. I even got a quack from the duck, who’s name I still didn’t have at the moment.

Everyone quickly took a drink, and I put one down in front of the duck. I’d made one for him too out of pure curiosity. I had no idea if the duck would even try it (or even could with the straw), but I wasn’t going to assume. In one sip the duck’s drink was almost half gone. “Oh, looks like this duck knows how to drink!” I said with a wide grin. “Tastes good, right? Drink up, Buddy!” I encouraged, glad that even the duck was enjoying my skills.

“Usopp, can you make us some fishing rods?” Luffy asked from around his straw.

“Fishing, eh? Not a bad idea,” Zoro agreed.

“Sure thing! Let me just fire up my ol’ artistic skills to create masterwork fishing rods!” he said before launching into a ridiculous story about how he’d once caught five thousand fish in one night with one of the rods he’d made.

I got up and took a sip of my own drink before sighing at the perfectly blended tastes. It was so refreshing. Something caught my eye, and I turned to perch on the railing carefully. “Hey, look! It’s a dolphin,” I called to the others.

“Oh!” Luffy hurried over instantly.

“Oh, it’s so cu…” Nami broke off as the dolphin jumped out of the water towards us and steadily got bigger and bigger until it dwarfed the Merry. “ **It’s freakin’ huge!** ” Not only that, but it was about to land on us.

“Let’s run away!” Luffy shouted though he didn’t seem to be particularly scared. He seemed more happy than anything.

“Aye-aye cap’n!”

There was a rush of movement to get the sails adjusted quickly, and we just managed to just barely avoid getting crushed by the gigantic dolphin. The wave nearly tipped us and when it was finally over I couldn’t help but laugh at it. I mean really… how embarrassing would it have been to be killed by getting crushed by a dolphin? 

Everything settled down after that, and I went to go make a proper breakfast in the galley. Breakfast was a little stingy compared to what I would have liked to serve, but we were running a bit low on supplies somehow. I had gotten plenty of rations before entering the Grand Line but far more was missing than should be. On top of that, our hasty fleeing meant I hadn’t had a chance to restock at Whiskey Peak.

We were sailing for only a few days and then about another half when I heard: “ **Woohoo!** Our second island of the Grand Line!” from outside. Unmistakably Luffy. I put down the dish I was drying and pulled on my jacket before going out to spot a rather sizable island a little ways off.

“We should be careful… I’m worried about what Ms. All-Sunday said about this island,” Vivi said as I took a drag from my cigarette.

“Y-y-you don’t think there are monsters here, do you?” Usopp asked nearly shaking out of his overalls.

“Beats me,” I replied leaning back against the railing as carefully as I could. Being dragged through that town hadn’t helped my back feel any better. “But we gotta stock up on some food pretty soon. I wasn’t able to restock at all at the last town.”

“But man, just look at this place… it’s like a land yet to be explored by people. The entire island is a thick jungle,” Nami said as we sailed up a river and were quickly dwarfed by pretty much everything. The rocks were boulders that could crush Merry easily, and the sticks were as thick as the main mast.

“So, this is Little Garden!” Luffy said from his special seat on Merry’s head.

“I can’t say I see anything that would deserve such a cute name like that, though,” Nami added looking around. “Just what about this island is _little_? And look! I’ve never seen any plants like these even in my encyclopedia!” Suddenly, there was a loud animal noise, and Nami screamed some and cowered. “What was that just now!?”

I couldn’t help but smirk at the reaction. “What’s a matter, Roe-head?” I asked as I exhaled a stream of smoke. “It was only a bird. Even this island is nothing but your average jungle,” I said pointing to the bird shape over my shoulder before taking another drag from my cigarette.

Slowly, though, the bird got closer, and I couldn’t help but blink at the strange sight of it. Maybe it wasn’t a normal bird after all…

“A lizard?” Luffy asked, and I shared his confusion. Though the thing was flying and had wings and talons, it also had a head with jaws and sharp teeth instead of a beak.

Then there was a huge rumbling sound that shook the entire ship and us on it. “Does this _sound_ like your average jungle!?” Nami demanded.

“That sounded like a volcano exploding or something!” Usopp screeched.

There was a loud growling noise from one side of the riverbank, and we turned to look. “A tiger!?”

A moment later, the source of the growling burst out of the treeline. It was indeed a tiger. Just an extremely _large_ tiger. That was bleeding profusely. “This is definitely not normal! Otherwise, why would a tiger, king of the jungle, collapse covered in its own blood!?” Nami demanded, practically sweating from how nervous she was. 

“Alright, then it’s decided. We are to not set foot on this island!” Usopp said firmly and he _was_ sweating from nerves.

“Let’s just quietly wait on our ship, and leave the very second our Log Pose finishes recording! After all, we have to hurry on to Alabasta as soon as possible,” Nami reasoned and -if it weren’t for the fact that we needed supplies- I wouldn’t necessarily have any objections. But we were in need, so I did have objections.

Before I could voice them, however, Luffy interrupted me, “ **Sonya**! Prepare a lunchbox!”

I blinked some in confusion. “A lunchbox?” I questioned as I brought my cigarette down to flick some ash off the end.

“Yeah, a pirate lunchbox! I smell adventure ahead!” Luffy said practically leaping off the boat already with a huge grin on his face.


	28. Hunting on Little Garden

“Sonya! Prepare my lunchbox!” Luffy shouted.

“Alright cutie, just give me a moment,” I told him as I went into the galley. Luckily, lunch boxes weren’t really that hard to make so it wouldn’t take me too long to make him his request. After only a few moments, I came back out and heard Vivi talking about going with Luffy. Why she would want to do something silly like that I had no idea, but she apparently did.

“You want me to make you a lunchbox too, blueberry?” I asked dryly looking over the balcony at her.

“Could you also make another drink for Karu as well?” she asked.

I sighed but nodded. “Of course, I will. The duck actually appreciates my work,” I murmured as I went back into the kitchen to make her something as well as refill the barrel that went around Karu’s neck.

Again, it didn’t take me long at all to make it up for them. It was only some quick bento selections and a refreshing juice drink made from fresh fruits. Nothing too terribly strenuous. As soon as I gave it to them, they were off the ship and disappearing into the jungle.

“That Miss Wednesday’s got some guts,” Usopp muttered as he watched them run off.

“I guess it’s expected of one who infiltrated Baroque Works,” Nami replied with her hands on her hips. She didn’t look particularly happy about this turn of events. I didn’t know why she cared, though. It wasn’t like she was putting herself in danger or anything.

“Well, since I’m not doing anything either, I’ll go for a walk,” Zoro said, twisting his neck some to stretch it out.

“ **A walk!?** ” Usopp demanded as if that was a completely unreasonable idea.

But I had different ideas. “Zoro! Wait!” I called jumping down from the balcony to the main deck to chase after him since he’d already climbed off. 

“Hm?” he asked, stopping and turning to look at me. 

“We’re running out of food onboard, so I have to go fetch more. You need to stay here and watch the ship since Nami and Usopp probably can’t do it,” I told him. 

“Hey!”

I just ignored the protests behind me. Nami and Usopp were far from the strongest members of our crew. I doubted they’d be able to fend off a giant tiger if it came to that. I wouldn’t put it past them to run off in fright. Especially a certain someone with a certain distinctively long nose.

“Don’t worry, I’ll go hunt for some animals that you’d never be able to kill yourself,” Zoro replied before continuing walking.

My temper flared at that. “Wait a minute!”

He stopped again and turned around halfway. “Huh?”

“Did I hear you wrong, or did you just imply that you could hunt bigger game than I can?” I asked taking an angry drag from my cigarette. I might be a girl, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t hunt just as well as he could. I _hated_ being seen as incapable.

“Isn’t that obvious?” he asked.

I growled some. Food supplies was my job, and I could hunt big animals just as well as he could. I didn’t need fancy sword moves either! “That’s it! I challenge you to a hunting contest!” I said swinging myself over the railing to land on the solid ground beside him.

He didn’t look in the least bit worried about my challenge, which pissed me off even more. Normally, I wouldn’t have minded at all him doing something nice for me, but his reasons were absolutely infuriating. This was my job we were talking about, and I never let anyone give me special treatment with my job. Not even on the Baratie did I let someone else go get me supplies just because I was a girl. So, I sure as hell wasn’t going to let him hunt for me just because he was a hunk of a guy with three swords.

I started off into the forest in a slightly different direction than Zoro was going. “Whoever brings back the most kilograms of meat will be the winner!” I told him as I stormed off.

“Fine by me. Though in my case, it’ll be tons of meat,” Zoro replied, and I ground my cigarette out angrily on a tree I walked past. He wasn’t going to beat me. I would make sure of it.

I was walking for quite a while looking for anything that would be big enough to win the contest with Zoro. Maybe if I won this thing he’d realize I was just as strong as him and that would help me win him over. I smiled at the thought. Being my usual sweet self had only worked a little. Maybe he liked a little more spice to his women. He liked spicier foods, after all. I’d noticed that fairly quickly. He rarely touched the deserts I made him, but practically devoured spicy barbeque. Well, what parts of it Luffy didn’t devour. So, I’d begun adding a few more spices to Zoro’s meals, I didn’t know if he’d noticed, but adjusting the meals to go with whoever’s palate was eating it was something I prided myself on.

As I was walking, I swore that something was wrong and paused to look around for the source. “Hmm? What the hell was that?” I murmured before lighting another cigarette. “Feel’s like something’s wrong…” I mused aloud.

Suddenly, there was a huge roar behind me, and I turned to look over my shoulder to see a large pair of jaws filled with sharp teeth coming at me. I reacted quickly, jumping forward and using my hands to vault myself away and land on my feet. I turned to the beast behind me more directly, and my eyes widened a fraction. “A… A T-Rex?” I asked in confusion.

Dinosaurs didn’t exist anymore, and yet here I was face to face with one. The T-Rex roared again and made to bite me, but I used a quick step to get out of the way. “Never cooked a dino before,” I mused as I ran forward a few steps. “I’ll bet that’s something that not even the old man’s done before!” I grinned at the thought and jumped up to avoid the tail of the T-Rex as it swept across the jungle floor at me.

In the air, I spun and lashed out with my foot. My heel caught the T-Rex on the side of his head. He was instantly thrown off balance and toppled into a tree with another roar. I landed and saw that my foot had left a rather unpleasant dent in the side of the dinosaur’s head and most of its teeth were broken.

The beast twitched some, but the blank look in its eyes told me that I’d killed it. I smirked a bit. So much for the king of the dinos. One kick and it was done. Of course, I could crush rocks with my kicks, bone wasn’t all that much more challenging. I smiled and walked over to the T-Rex, but then stopped. “Wait… how am I gonna get you back?” I asked out loud. The thing was much bigger than I was after all. “Crap…”

I pulled out a cigarette and put it to my mouth to light it up. I thought for a while before I sighed and went to the back of the dinosaur. “I guess dragging you is the way to go…” I mused as I picked up the end of the dino’s tail and started dragging him back to the ship.

It was harder than I expected, the dinosaur was huge, and my back was strongly protesting trying to move something so heavy. It seemed to take hours to take a single step. I could hear lots of loud noises coming from the jungle. At one point, I even swore I heard Luffy shouting, but since he shouted about pretty much everything I ignored it for the most part.

I continued to strain and finally managed to drag the dinosaur back to the ship. I wasn’t too terribly surprised to see the damn thing was bigger than the Merry. No wonder I’d had such a hard time moving it. All my muscles were throbbing with the effort it had taken, and my back was screaming bloody murder again. I sighed and lit up another cigarette before going onto the ship.

Nobody was on board, though. I blinked and began to search, but it didn’t take me long at all to confirm that nobody was on board. The Merry wasn’t that big of a ship. “Damn it… where did Usopp and Nami go?” I muttered poking my head into me and Nami’s room, just to be sure.

I raised an eyebrow at all the books strewn everywhere. “The hell?” I muttered going in and picking up the first I came to. It was a book called _Brag Men_. I sighed and gathered up all the books that had ended up on my side of the room and tossed them onto Nami’s bed. “Didn’t think you’d be a slob, roe-head,” I muttered before going out of the room and making my way to the galley.

“I’m gonna kill her and Usopp,” I said as I leaned back against the wall to take some strain off my back. They were supposed to be watching the ship. What if this island was inhabited or something? Our ship could be completely ransacked, and we’d be none the wiser.

I waited for what felt like hours before I started to actually worry some about where everyone was. “This is so strange…” I muttered. “I’ve been waiting for them for a while. How come nobody has shown up?” I asked myself.

“What if something happened to Zoro and Luffy? Zoro’s probably lost and Lord knows Luffy can’t stay out of trouble…” I mused, tapping my foot against the ground. “I can’t cook this giant lizard now or even butcher it… I better go find them…”

I jumped off the ship and onto my prize before jumping down again to reach the jungle floor. I went into the jungle a ways before I started calling for them. Zoro was, of course, most likely lost and wandering in circles in that cute way he had, so he’d probably hear me before I found him. “Zoro-kun! Luffy-san!” I called as loudly as I could.

I heard a growl and a saber tooth tiger lunged at me. I didn’t even have time to think before I reacted. I swung around and bashed my heel across his head. It hit the ground hard, but I could tell from the whimpering mewls it was still alive. I hadn’t used as much force as I had with the dinosaur. I frowned and knelt down beside the cat. “Bad kitty. It’s not nice to try and eat people,” I told it. It mewled again and seemed to shrink.

“Now… to make it up to me you’re going to help me find my friends,” I told it sternly. It cowered, and I stood up. “Well come on, before I kick you somewhere else,” I ordered.

The cat reluctantly got to its feet but was shaking. “You brought this upon yourself,” I told it before giving him a nudge with my foot. It practically leaped forward in fright, and I instantly jumped on it’s back. I was tired of traipsing through the jungle on foot. “Come on, let’s go, Bucky.”

The tiger mewled pathetically but started walking; allowing me to ride on it’s back. Imagine; one kick to the head and a vicious tiger became a cowering kitten. I shook my head and went back to searching for my friends. “Zoro-kun! Luffy-san!” I called loudly. “Answer me, my darlings!”

I rode on the back of the tiger for quite a while, calling for my Zoro and Luffy. To be honest, those were the two I was most worried about. The others had at least some amount of self-preservation instinct, so I figured they’d run away from trouble if they needed to. Zoro and Luffy would most certainly not.

Suddenly, I spotted something strange and jumped off the back of the tiger, who took the chance to flee for his life. I didn’t care, though; I was somewhat more interested in the object in front of me. “What’s this?” I asked nobody. It looked like a box made of melted wax. It was nine feet tall and at least eight feet wide. But what was even stranger was it had a door in it made from the same melted and hardened wax.

I stared at it for a minute before going inside, my curiosity having gotten the better of me. Inside, everything pretty much seemed to be made of wax. It was very strange. On a large circular table, there was a nice tea set laid out on a plaid tablecloth. I raised an eyebrow and moved closer. There was a tray of cookies there in the middle along with several teapots and all the accessories for a formal tea, which was impressive. I hadn’t had an honest to God formal tea since I was a kid. The occasional cups of tea on my own didn’t really count.

“Hmm…” I reached out and grabbed a cookie before bringing it up to taste. “A little dry…” I mused before taking another nibble. “But it’s got a good level of sweetness. A bit of almond flavor to it too…”

I finished off the cookie and reached for a different type. I nibbled at that one next. “Ooh, nice and fresh. Soft baked too,” I said taking a seat at the table as I continued to taste the different treats on the table. Each one was different, some were better made than others, and some were more complicated, but I couldn’t resist trying each one to see how well they were made.

Without thinking, I poured a cup of tea to go with the cookies I was trying. I took a sip to find out what kind it was. “Mmm, Earl Grey. Nobody ever drinks that anymore…” I said before taking another sip.

I tried another cookie and washed it down with the tea before it suddenly hit me what I was doing. “Gah! What am I doing? This isn’t the time to have a tea break!” I said putting the cup down. “Zoro and Luffy could be needing my help!”

I sighed and shook my head. Damn it, I’d been enjoying myself too. Some of those cookies were different than normal, and it was always nice to try new ways of doing things. Especially when it came to cooking. “That’s too bad. How come there is a comfortable room in the middle of the jungle anyway?” 

Just then, I heard a ringing noise. “Huh?” I asked turning back around to search for the source of it. The ringing continued, and I spotted a box in the corner. “What’s that?” I asked going over to it.

I opened the box and pulled out a giant snail with a mustache and a striped shell. “Hey! It’s a snail phone!” I said finding a part of the shell that came off but was still attached with a cord. I’d heard a little about these things. The ringing stopped instantly. Deciding to fuck around a bit with whoever was calling, I brought the receiver up to my mouth. “Hello! This is a shitty restaurant. What do you want to order?” I asked sitting back down. 

“Stop playing, idiot! Why didn’t you send me a report?” 

I blinked some. “Report?” I echoed. “Umm… who are you?” I asked suddenly realizing this was a more serious situation than I had originally thought.

“It’s me,” the caller said. “Mr. Zero.”


	29. Leaving Little Garden

“Mister…. Zero…?” I repeated warily. I took a drag from my cigarette as I leaned back on the couch. ‘ _If I remember correctly… Blueberry said that Mr. Zero was the enemy boss’ codename… which would mean that the man on the other side of this Denden-mushi right now is… One of the Royal Shichibukai!?_ ’

“It’s already been quite some time since I sent you my orders,” Zero said smoothly. “What is your status, Ms. Goldenweek? And where is Mr. Three?”

‘ _Ms. Goldenweek and Mr. Three… they must be his agents that own the Denden-mushi here…_ ’ I thought before exhaling the smoke in my lungs. This was definitely an unexpected series of events. ‘ _Alright, if I understand correctly… the current situation now is that I’m in the enemy’s secret hideout and a guy named Mr. Three and some chick named Goldenweek are here on this island to hunt down the princess…_ ’

I looked off to the side as I tried to puzzle out very quickly what I was going to do. He thought I was his agent Goldenweek, so I definitely shouldn’t correct him. ‘ _Damn it… I really shouldn’t have been caught up in some stupid hunting game! I hope the guys haven’t run into those agents and gotten into trouble…_ ’

“What are you being so silent for?” Zero asked. “I’m asking you a question. Have you eliminated Princess Vivi and the Strawhat Pirates or not?”

I exhaled a long stream of smoke and flicked some ash away as I quickly came to a decision. “Yes, we’ve carried out our mission, alright. All the people who know of your secret are now no more, so there is no more need for further pursuit,” I told him casually.

“I see. Good work… The Unluckies are headed your way right now. Once they confirm your mission’s success, they’ll hand you a certain package,” Zero said on the other side of the phone.

“The Unluckies? A package?” I echoed, not sure what that meant exactly, but able to tell it was significant.

“That’s right. An Eternal Pose to Alabasta…” My eyebrow went up at that instantly. “Once you have it, head to Alabasta with Mr. Three immediately. The time has come… we must now carry out the most crucial step of our plan. You will await further details, once you arrive at Alabasta.”

I would have answered, but I was distracted by a very odd sight. A vulture with a floral headscarf and an otter wearing a leopard print leotard were standing in the two windows of the wax room. Both of them had sunglasses on, and neither looked particularly happy, though how a vulture manages to look unhappy, I wasn’t entirely sure. “The hell…”

The vulture suddenly revealed what looked like flame throwers on it’s back with a click while the otter pulled out spiked fans. “What’s the matter?” Zero asked.

“No, it’s n-” 

Suddenly, the barrels on the back of the vulture exploded. Thankfully, they weren’t flamethrowers and just regular cannons. That was a sentence I never would have thought would ever be thought by me. Luckily, I was able to jump out of the way before the bullets hit the couch, shattering it instantly. “ **Gah! What the hell are they!?** ” I demanded, losing my cigarette in the process. I had to dodge again, leaping this time. As the otter dashed forward and tried to gouge me apart with its fan, I planted my right foot and swung around. “Trying to kill me, are you now? That’s some big balls you’ve got, you damned, dirty, **four-eyed monkey!** ” I shouted as I slammed my foot into the back of the otter, bashing him very hard into the wall.

There was a click, and I glanced up to see the vulture had those guns or whatever pointed at me. I quickly did a flip and caught the bird’s head between my feet. “Didn’t I tell you… to quit it, you overgrown chicken!?” I demanded before turning in mid air. There was a sickening cracking sound as the bird’s neck snapped several times.

I barely managed to get my foot under me to catch myself, but I did. “What happened?” Zero asked through the phone even as the vulture’s body hit the ground with a thud. I lit myself a new cigarette as I went over and grabbed the receiver. “Oh, nevermind that. It’s really nothing,” I told him. “One of the Strawhats turned out to be just barely alive, but I finished him off for sure so worry not,” I continued to lie.

“One of them… was alive?” Zero asked, and I easily detected a dangerous tone from him. One I definitely didn’t like. I was very glad I didn’t work for this guy. “Didn’t you just say that you had carried out the mission successfully?”

“Ah, well, I thought we had. But one of the bastards was a lot more tenacious than I thought…” I said drumming my fingers on my knee somewhat nervously. I really hoped he bought this.

“So, in short, you had given me a false report at that time…”

I frowned. This guy had a major attitude. “Well, I suppose that’s true if you want to get technical… but I really did finish him for sure just now. So, there’s really no need for further pursuit. Capiche?”

There was a moment of pause before I got a reply. “Fine… Just head for Alabasta straight away then. This will be the last time I contact you by Denden-Mushi. I can’t afford for the Marines to intercept any of our calls. From here on, orders shall be delivered the traditional way. That is all. Godspeed, Ms. Goldenweek.” And, with that, the connection went dead.

I frowned at the receiver in my hand. “He hung up… such an ass,” I said as I tossed the receiver to the side and got to my feet. My eyes drifted over to the two animals I’d easily taken care of. “So, what the hell were these things?” I asked myself, still slightly bewildered by their strange appearance. 

I mean really, what animal wears leotards and headscarves? Something suddenly shifted, catching my attention. “Hm? This is a Pose thingy…” I said kneeling down to pick it up. It was bigger than the thing Nami wore on her wrist, and it had the word Alabasta carved on the top, but the red and white needle was unmistakable.

I examined it for a moment before putting it safely in the pocket of my skirt. A quick glance around told me there was little else I was going to get from this particular place, so I left. I did still have to find the others, after all. I started wandering the jungle, luckily not coming across anything too dangerous. It wouldn’t have been hard to kill I didn’t think, but it would have been an unpleasant delay. And with two enemy agents wandering around I couldn’t afford delays. I had to find the others.

It felt like I was walking for hours. It certainly felt like it. Then, around the base of one of the mountains, I heard familiar voices. Joy welled up instantly, and I ran the last bit of distance. “Hellooooooo, Zoro and Luffy! …and you other people!” I greeted as I practically leaped into the clearing. “Thank God you’re all safe!!” 

“Hey, Sonya!” Luffy greeted. I almost fell over to see that he wasn’t wearing his usual vest and beneath was a surprisingly well-sculpted set of abs and a chest. I had seriously not been expecting such nice muscles on the owner of those skinny arms.

“She shows up **now!?** ” I heard Usopp demand, but I didn’t care.

Suddenly, I spotted a huge man who’s hand alone was as tall as me sitting off to the side. “ **The hell is that!? Are you Mr. Three!?** ” I couldn’t help but demand. I mean, he was huge. I didn’t really want to fight a freakin’ giant if he was an enemy.

“Huh? How do you know about Mr. Three?” Nami asked, and I nearly fell again, this time for a very different reason, though.

“Damn, orange head! Put on a shirt would you!?” I demanded in annoyance.

“I don’t have one!” she snapped back. “It got burned!”

I couldn’t help but snort some. “I know you don’t have the best fashion sense, but I didn’t think it looked that bad…”

“My clothes are a hell of a lot better than yours, blondie!” she said pointing at me with one finger.

“Then why do I always look so much classier?” I asked with a smirk.

“At least I’m not a damn chimney!”

“Hey hey hey!” Luffy said, jumping between us. “Did you find any jungle treats, Sonya!?” he asked, eyes sparkling. “That’s what you were looking for right? Jungle treats!”

I scratched the side of my head. “Er… that’s all back at the ship, Luffy…” I said even though ‘jungle treats’ wasn’t exactly what I’d gotten.

“Yay! Adventure Jungle Treats!” Luffy cheered. “Can I have some when we get back!?”

“Sure Luffy,” I said absently as I looked over the rest of the crew. Along with quite a few missing shirts (depressingly Zoro’s was not missing), there were a fair amount of injuries including Zoro’s feet nearly being severed at the ankle. “What the hell happened to all of you?” I asked as I took off my jacket and flung it at Nami I didn’t really want to be seeing that much of her. 

I got a very quick and somewhat jumbled run down from five different people at once; Nami screamed it, seemingly annoyed, Luffy was laughing while occasionally remembering what he was trying to tell me, Zoro kept getting cut off as did Vivi, and Usopp’s voice was shaking. But, from what I could gather, they’d somehow ended up meeting these two giants who were in a hundred year duel or something, one drank a sabotaged barrel of rum, and the duel ended. Just as the duel ended Mr. Three appeared and there was a big fight involving lots of candle wax and a bit of fire. All in all, it wasn’t a very helpful explanation, but I guess it would do for now since they did mention Mr. Three and his cohorts were defeated. 

Then they all (mostly Nami and Usopp) demanded where I’d been, so I gave them a quick run down of everything that had happened while I was looking for them. I just left out the tea break thing because Nami looked about ready to explode as it was. But after I finished explaining the phone call they got very interested. “So then… just a moment ago… You were talking with Mr. Zero?” Vivi asked in shock.

Well, it was more than a moment ago, but I let that slide. “Yeah, I guess… it seems he mistook me for Ms. Goldenweek.”

“And now he thinks that we’re all dead!?” Vivi breathed.

“Yeah. Or at least that’s what I told him,” I agreed tapping some ash off my cigarette.

“Just when we _finally_ throw off our pursuers we can’t even step _foot_ off of this island!” Usopp shouted, practically in tears.

“What?” I asked in confusion. “Do we still have unfinished business here or something? I mean, I managed to get this from them and all…” I said holding up the Eternal Pose that had been in my pocket. They all dropped their jaws and stared at me. It was somewhat disconcerting actually. “Huh? Wha?” I asked. I had mentioned that, right? I could have sworn I had…

“ **An Eternal Pose to Alabasta!** ” they cheered and most started to dance. Zoro thankfully didn’t. I’d seen him dance back on Mirror Island and he was about as good at it as I was… “We can set sail!”

Suddenly, a streak of blue hit me, and Vivi was hugging me tight. “Thank you so much, Sonya! I was so worried over what to do!”

I gave her an awkward pat on the back. “Y-you’re welcome… I didn’t think it’d make you this happy…” I said; still a little freaked out by the reaction.

“Alright, guys! It’s time for a senbei party!” Luffy screamed holding one senbei up triumphantly.

“Luffy! This ain’t gonna be much of a party if we’ve only got three crackers left!” Usopp protested.

“This isn’t the time for that,” Nami told him sternly. “It’s time to set sail, Captain! We can’t just loiter around here forever!” 

I got up from my seat on a fallen tree and brought my cigarette up to take a drag. “Ah, Zoro-kun, you haven’t forgotten about our hunting contest, have you?” I asked him. I would understand if he had, it sounds like he’d had a fairly busy day after all.

“Hm? Oh, I’m sure I’ve won that. I caught a rhino ‘bout thiiiis big,” Zoro said holding his arms apart wide.

“A rhino?” I asked in confusion. “Can you even eat that thing?” I asked even as I racked my brain for any sort of ‘rhino’ recipes I could think of. I was certain I could think up something to do with it… it was still meat after all…

“Alright then, Mr. Round, Mr. Giant! We’ll be taking off now!” Luffy shouted up at the two giants.

“I see… busy lil’ buggers aren’cha?” the giant with the shorter beard said.

“It’s a shame, but we won’t ask you to stay longer,” the other giant added. “I hope your country’s safe, girl.”

“Thank you,” Vivi called back as we all started to head back to the river and therefore the Merry.

“See ya then! Don’t die anymore!” Luffy shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Just you wait. My catch is definitely bigger,” I told Zoro as we left the clearing behind. 

“Ha, sure it is, Sonya,” he replied seemingly unconcerned.

“Master! I’ll go to Elbaf for sure one day!” I heard Usopp shout behind us. I wondered what exactly that meant, but put it out of my mind as unimportant.

We got back to the Merry without any huge events, and Zoro grabbed his kill and put it beside mine. “Mine’s bigger,” I said with a smile.

“No way. Mine is,” Zoro said. 

I giggled a bit. “Zoro-kun… my dino is clearly bigger. Look it goes way past yours.”

Zoro scowled. “No. Mine is bigger than your rinky dinky dino!” he snapped.

I felt my temper starting to build and quickly. “Look! My lizard is **clearly** bigger,” I said pointing down at the dino I was standing on.

“Are your eyes just for show or something? The bigger animal is **my** rhino!” Zoro growled pointing down at the beast he was standing on.

“Who cares, they both look pretty tasty to me,” Luffy said from the railing of the boat.

“You stay out of this!” Both Zoro and I snapped. If I were a little calmer I’d have found it very endearing.

“How long are you two going to bicker? We can’t even carry all that much meat. Just pack up as much as we need and let’s go already. It’s time to set sail!” Nami snapped from the balcony. 

“You just have no concept of real tests of skill!” I snapped up at her, though I hated to admit she had a point. The storage room wasn’t that big and wouldn’t hold as much meat as we’d gotten. Maybe this hunting contest idea hadn’t been so hot…

“Hey, Usopp. Mine’s clearly bigger, right?” Zoro asked the marksman.

“Huh? I couldn’t care less,” Usopp replied.

“Is a tie no good?” Vivi asked.

“There’s **no tie** in a contest!” both me and Zoro snapped at her.

I was tempted to keep arguing but like I said before, Nami did have a point. So, I begrudgingly butchered as much of the animals as I could and put the meat in storage before we started down the river. Luckily, I was an expert butcher, so it didn’t take that long.

“If we sail straight from here, we should be able to exit on the western side of the island,” Nami said as the Merry floated through the river.

“Do you think we should have packed more of that meat?” Luffy asked from his perch on Merry’s head.

“Don’t be stupid. We don’t even have enough space to preserve any more than this,” I told him sourly. I hadn’t very much liked having to leave so much perfectly good food behind. The only reason I could justify it was that the animals in the jungle would eat it so it wouldn’t truly go to waste.

“Are you trying to sink our ship?” Usopp asked incredulously.

“Ah! It’s the Giants!” Luffy suddenly announced, and I looked up from what I was doing to spot the Giants on either side of the river’s exit.

“They’ve come to see us off!” Usopp said with a huge grin. He’d apparently taken a very big liking to the Giants during our visit. It was a little surprising to me, but at least we’d found someone that he didn’t run screaming from.

“The most important reason why all the little ones who come to this island,” began the first giant.

“Do not reach the next island lies straight ahead,” finished the other.

“What?” Nami asked, and I had to agree. Just what was so bad about endless smooth ocean waters? It was quite refreshing looking, actually.

“You all risked your lives so that our pride can remain untarnished,” the taller of the two giants said, still not looking at us in our little ship.

“Thus, in turn, no matter the foe…”

“We must not let your flag of pride be tarnished either!” 

“Trust in us and sail straight ahead! No matter what happens, sail only straight ahead!”

“What’re they…” Zoro began but never got to finish.

“Got it! Sail straight ahead!” Luffy agreed instantly. “Farewell.”

“Let us meet again,” the Giants said drawing their weapons. “One day in the future.”

“Look! Up ahead!” Nami nearly screamed. I could understand the reaction. The entire sea was rising up in front of us, and a huge fin was breaking the surface.

“So you’ve come, ‘Island-Devourer’,” one of the giants said.

“In the name of Elbaf, we vow to clear a path!” the other declared.

It took a minute but then a giant fish broke the surface of the water, creating huge waves and causing all around panic. The damn goldfish had teeth bigger than the Merry. It would be like being swallowed by Laboon all over again and that wasn’t something I wanted to repeat.

“What is that thing!?”

“Is it a sea king!?”

“Does it really matter what the hell it is?” I demanded.

“Grab the helm or we’re going to be swallowed alive!” Nami shouted.

“What in the world… is that a giant… Goldfish!?” Usopp asked, staring at it with wide eyes. “Huh? A giant goldfish? I feel like I’ve heard of that before…”

“Usopp! Hurry!” Nami shouted up at him.

“I… I won't!” he said almost firmly. It was actually pretty impressive. “We’ll be going straight ahead! R-Right, Luffy?”

“Yup, you bet,” Luffy agreed, perfectly calm as always.

“Don’t be ridiculous! This is completely different than getting swallowed by Laboon!” Nami shouted, practically beside herself. I couldn’t help but be nervous too. Dying by digestion was an irony I’d rather not experience.

“Yeah, yeah, just pipe down already. Here, I’ll even give you the last Senbei,” Luffy said holding it out to her.

“I don’t **need** any senbei!” Nami snapped though she grabbed it from him anyway. “If we don’t turn this ship around this instant, we’ll-”

“Nami. Give it up already,” Zoro told her.

She stopped shouting but instead turned to sobbing while munching on the senbei. Figures she’d be an emotion eater. The very very close mouth of the fish finally ruined the calm I’d managed to keep. I whipped around. “Luffy! You’re sure those Giants are trustworthy, right?” I demanded.

“Yup,” he answered. I couldn’t help but whimper. I did not like this. I doubted there was an old man living inside of this one.

“Are you serious!? We’re really going to sail straight into that monster!?” Vivi demanded.

“ **Oh no! It’s too late to do anything now!** ” Nami screamed as the ship started rushing down the fish’s throat. 

“Straight ahead! Straight ahead!” Usopp screeched.

“What’re you screaming for!? We’ve already been swallowed alive!” Nami shouted back at him. 

“Straight ahead! Straight ahead!” Luffy chanted as well. Suddenly, the world seemed to explode, and we were flying through the open air. “ **Wooohooo!** We’re flying!” Luffy shouted as he jumped onto his usual seat.

“Don’t turn back now! Fly straight ahead!”

“They’re just so… freakin’ big!” Luffy said with a grin. 

“They cut… the ocean itself… so this is… the power of Elbaf’s warriors…” Usopp said through a ridiculous amount of tears and noisy sniffing. “ **Absolutely stunning!** ”

“ **Now go!** ” I heard the Giants shout at us.


	30. Late Night Talks

That night, I turned over in my bed for about the five hundredth time before I finally gave up and got up. I didn’t bother getting fully dressed and just sneaked past Vivi who’s cot was right next to the door. Luckily, Karu wasn’t in our room too. He had instead bunked with the other boys. It would be far too cramped with a giant duck to share with.

I made my way to the galley, yawning every so often. I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in ages. My back was killing me ever since the fight at the Baratie. Most of the time I could ignore it because I was either cooking or fighting or working in some other way. But at night, when all I could do was lay there and try to sleep, I really felt it. I couldn’t even get comfortable. My favorite position was on my side, and there was no way my back would let me sleep like that.

The only position that didn’t cause my back to scream at me was on my stomach, and I could never sleep like that. It was just the strangest sensation. I yawned again and went to stretch my arms over my head, but quickly changed my mind when my back gave a twinge in warning.

Once I got to the galley, I started cleaning. Even pots I’d never used here on the Merry got a very thorough scrub before I started cleaning the galley itself. It didn’t really need it, but it was something I could get lost in and would hopefully tire me out enough to not care how I was uncomfortable in bed and just let me sleep. I would be far too grateful for that. The fact that my back was still hurting me had now gotten me officially worried about it. I made a mental note to go to a doctor to have it checked out the next time we were on an inhabited island that wasn’t full of bounty hunters or giant dinosaurs or anything else.

“What are you doing up?”

I turned and smiled at Zoro who looked like he’d just woken up himself. “Couldn’t sleep,” I said turning back to scrubbing the countertops. “Did you need something? I thought you’d have eaten enough at dinner, but all you people are black holes so I can’t ever be sure.”

Zoro grunted a bit and walked across the galley to where I kept the alcohol. “Just something to drink,” he said. “If I eat now I’ll just go to sleep, and it’s my watch,” he added sitting down with a full bottle.

“I’m going to take that as a compliment to my cooking,” I said glancing over my shoulder at him.

He grunted again, and we lapsed into silence for several minutes. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you not all dressed up,” he said suddenly.

I paused and turned around. “Huh?”

He gestured to my tank top and loose pajama bottoms. “Never seen you without some stuffy suit or something on. That looks a lot more comfortable,” he explained before taking a long drink from his bottle.

I smiled some at that. “It is more comfortable but I pride myself on putting forth a good impression,” I told him. “You can’t work in a high-quality restaurant dressed like a bum off the streets.”

“Yeah but you’re not in a restaurant anymore,” he said with a frown.

“Maybe not in name but I’m definitely running this galley like I would the Baratie,” I told him as I leaned back against the counter. “Though I have to be creative with my supplies and I’m working alone it’s pretty much the same. Fix a lot of food, serve it to noisy, rowdy pirates, clean up, do a little fighting… start all over again.”

Zoro grunted yet again and got up from where he was sitting. “If you say so. I gotta get back to watch,” he said heading for the door.

“Alright, Zoro-kun! If you need anything, I’ll be right here for you!” I called as he left. I didn’t hear a response, but I didn’t much care.

I went back to cleaning the counters, and once that was done, I started inventorying what I had left in my stores. Though we’d just refilled them and I knew perfectly well what I had, it kept me busy while I couldn’t sleep.

It took me an hour or so to take inventory all over again and then, still not tired enough to go to bed, I started washing the floor of the galley. I was about halfway through the room when I heard the door open. I half expected it to be Luffy or Usopp or both coming to snitch, but I was surprised to see Vivi standing there. “Blueberry… what are you doing here?” I asked as I wrung the water out of the mop head.

“O-oh, just a… a nightmare. I was going to get a drink of water…” she said hesitantly.

I frowned a bit as I moped the floor. She sounded downright terrified of me. I hadn’t meant to scare her that much. “Go ahead. I think I can trust you not to cause a disaster like Luffy would,” I said without looking up.

I heard her get a glass and fill it with water. “Goodnight,” she murmured as she started back across the galley.

“Drink it in here,” I told her.

“Huh?” she asked stopping and facing me.

“Unless you’re sick… you should drink it in here,” I said turning around. “Last thing I need is my dishes going missing because the boys follow your example only forget to bring the dishes back once they’re done,” I explained.

She still looked hesitant, though. “Are you sure I won’t bother you?” 

I smirked a bit. “I’m too tired to bite right now, Blueberry,” I said turning back to my moping. “And honestly, I don’t hate you nearly as much as I hate Nami,” I added though why I bothered was somewhat beyond me.

“You don’t?” she asked, sounding surprised. “But I thought-”

“I’m not used to sharing. On the Baratie, I was the princess. And now I have to share the attention with Nami and now you. If we weren’t in such tight quarters, it’d be different. I could ignore you two a lot easier. But I can’t,” I said as I dunked the mop and then wrung it out again.

“It’s funny you say that… you actually remind me of a princess I once met,” she said, and I looked over my shoulder at her. “She was from the North Blue I think.”

“How’d you meet a princess from North Blue?” I asked curiously and somewhat warily.

“It was a big convention of royals. My father brought me. She was the only other kid my age there,” Vivi said staring at her glass. “Never saw her any of the other times, though.”

I hummed a bit at that but continued to mop. “Well, I’m just a princess in my mind,” I said neutrally after several minutes. “Though for being a real princess you sort of surprise me, Blueberry.”

“How’s that?” Vivi asked in clear confusion.

“Well, it takes a lot of guts to sneak into an enemy organization to try and save your country. I wouldn’t think most princesses would do that personally. They’d send their ‘servants’ to do it. Your dedication is… good to see,” I said as I finished mopping the floor and gathered the bucket of used water. I hated the word servant, but I knew that more than a few Royals thought very little on those that actually made it possible for them to live in luxury. I was glad Vivi seemed different and seemed to value her subjects. “That doesn’t get you anywhere near off the hook though for getting us into this mess,” I added warningly as I carried the bucket out of the galley to empty it over the side.

When I got back to the galley, Vivi was washing her glass at the sink. I smirked some at that and gave her a few mental brownie points as I put the mop and bucket away. “Go on to bed, Vivi,” I said going over and taking the glass from her to dry it. “We don’t get very long rests with this crew. Tomorrow we’ll probably wind up on some island full of walking skeletons or some crazy shit like that.”

Vivi looked somewhat surprised but slowly nodded and began to smile as she left. I rolled my eyes after she left and quickly finished drying the glass before putting it away. Honestly, she acted like I’d just sung her praises from the galley rooftop or something.

After putting the glass away, I made sure everything was locked up tight and then made my way out of the galley. I lit a new cigarette as I stared out at the water. It was a huge sheet of black glass reflecting the moonlight from the half moon above us. I exhaled as I moved to lean against the railing. I was definitely more tired than I was before so maybe I’ll actually get some sleep once I went back to bed.

My back was constantly throbbing but the nicotine helped drown it out some. Of course, the nicotine just helped in general. It calmed me down enough that sleep was a much more likely option.

“You still up?”

I turned and spotted Zoro coming over. “I’m going to bed after this cigarette,” I said taking another drag and holding it for a moment before exhaling. 

“Why do you smoke anyway? I’ve never met a woman who did,” he said suddenly.

I blinked and turned. “Well, I started because I wanted to be more grown up. Zeff kept calling me a kid or his ‘little eggplant ’, and it pissed me off, so I started smoking. After that, I just liked to and didn’t stop,” I explained.

“It’s that simple?” he asked seemingly confused.

I chuckled. “It’s really that simple, cupcake. Not everything dealing with women is complicated.”

“Would you ever stop?” 

“Nope,” I said taking another drag. “I do what I want, and right now I enjoy a good smoke.” 

“Not even if some guy doesn’t like kissing an ashtray?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

I whipped around at that, smiling some. “You think about guys kissing me? And what it’d taste like to kiss me, Zoro?” I asked stepping a little closer. 

His eyes widened, and he took a few steps back. “No!” he said instantly. “It’s just common sense!”

I smirked, completely unperturbed. “For your information, I do not taste like an ashtray,” I said leaning even closer. Zoro took another step back before he hit the wall of the galley. “Maybe one day I’ll even prove it to you,” I added before flicking my cigarette butt off the side of the boat and into the water.

I blew him a kiss before starting for the stairs. “W-witch!” he shouted, clearly still flustered. He must not know a lot of forward women. He clearly had no idea how to handle me. It was actually very cute.

I turned and smirked at the bright blush across his face. “You love it,” I accused before continuing to the girl’s bunk. I was glad I’d decided to see more of embarrassed Zoro. It definitely suited him well. Especially, when he tried to play it off as if he weren’t embarrassed.


End file.
